My Medal Moment: Erin Virtue
7/23/2024 12:00:00 PM | Volleyball, Olympics
One of the newest faces in Ann Arbor, second-year U-M volleyball head coach Erin Virtue is no stranger to the international stage. She has spent 11 total seasons in the U.S. pipeline mentoring athletes from U-16 and older and moved up to a full-time assistant coach for the Women's National Team in the fall of 2018. Virtue helped the USA to Volleyball Nations League titles in 2018 and 2019 and a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The U.S. Women's Volleyball team qualification happened in 2019 before the Olympics finally took place in the summer of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the Olympics, the team practiced very differently than normal, doing so in small groups in California while some were training at home.
Two months before the first Olympic match against Argentina, we took part in the Volleyball Nations League and used it as an opportunity to select the team. Our program used the mantra "23 strong," but no matter what, we needed to whittle the team down to 12 for Tokyo. The Nations League took place in a bubble in Rimini, Italy, which saw 18 players make the trip. During the tournament, the coaching staff came to a draft of 12 players, but they also polled the team for the 11 other players that each player would want to represent the nation with them and both were in alignment. After defeating Turkey and Brazil in the elimination rounds to win the VNL, we had 11 days of practice before leaving for Tokyo. Practice consisted of focusing on the starting group but also rotating in some "game-changers" (bench players).
Heading into the Olympics, I was really taking it day by day and relying on head coach Karch Kiraly and his vast Olympic experience as the rest of the staff was also new to the Olympics. Â We entered the Olympics ranked No. 1 in the world, but still felt like the underdog as no USA women's volleyball team had won a gold medal in the Olympic Games. Coach Kiraly doesn't love to set expectations, but we had hopes and goals. The team went into every match trying to bring the best them that they could be.
Traveling to the Olympics, I was deemed a close contact with someone on the plane so had to be isolated which included missing the practice week and the first game against Argentina. I was still involved though as I coached practice through a video call. In the opening match against Argentina, the team played great and won in three sets while I was in my hotel room on a headset and had three different streams of the game. The match was a fun breakout match, especially for our youngest player on the team, Jordan Thompson.
I was back on the bench for the next match against China but had to stay six feet away from everyone. China was the only team to beat us in the VNL earlier in the summer, sweeping us but we purposely did not show them all our cards. In Tokyo, we got our payback and swept them, and it was also nice to beat a higher-ranked them. This match was special for me as it was my first in the arena as an Olympic coach.
The next match was our closest match of the tournament. Turkey is a good opponent, and we go five sets more times than not against them. We always looked forward to playing them as it is a hard battle and many of our players know the Turkish players from playing overseas with them. This game did not disappoint and started at 9:45 p.m. Tokyo time. We won the first two sets and the final set 15-12 to win the match that ended just after midnight local time.
Against the Russian Olympic Committee, we suffered our only loss in the tournament and the result was awful, but it helped at the same time. A lot of our game-changers played in this match and we suffered an injury to a starter that impacted us for the rest of the tournament. I do not have many memories of the match, but our response after instead. It was a midday match, so we gathered later that night and debriefed instead of the normal next day. The team, our staff and everybody was ready to learn and move on from it. Everyone was ready to step up which was amazing and inspiring which is always the hope, but you don't know until it is needed.
Our match against Italy determined the winner of the group and an easier path to the medal games. After another injury, this time to our starting setter, we hung on to win in five. Our team had the mindset it was the next thing that happened to us and now we have to look forward. In the match, we didn't play perfectly but we played hard and fought. It was a cool moment for our group because we had overcome the loss and two starting players were hurt in a matter of about 48 hours to win a five-set match.
Headed into the knockout stage, we opened with the Dominican Republic who we have faced more than any other team in our history. We were as prepared as we could be -- mentally, emotionally and tactically. It was a pretty clean match against them and was a team win. With two reserves starting, it was good to escape the match in three sets and move into the semifinals.
We met Serbia in the semifinals, a team that presented one of the biggest challenges of the tournament with one of the best players in the world. We prepared for her directly in the summer and brought in a high-flying lefty practice player so our game plan is what sticks out the most about that match. We were able to execute it as our group bought into the plan and were disciplined in the match which led to another three-set win. After the game, that was the most emotional I had ever been after a match because it guaranteed us a medal, but it meant more after all the trials this team had been through.
Our final match was against Brazil and the team had an emotional talk in the locker room before coming out for warmups. We wanted to leave ourselves out on the court, not just physically, but just all emotions -- and that's what happened. It was a nice balanced match and knew we would need to have a lot of people firing to win. The first set had some nerves, but having our starting setter back helped to play clean volleyball. I still can't believe that it was as quick of a match as it was and the fashion, we won in knowing the opponent. The final kill came from three-time Olympian and captain Jordan Larson which was a play drawn up during a timeout before the final rally.
We were immediately overcome with emotion and the team had a pile on the court and the staff had a big group hug. There's nothing like it when you hear the national anthem playing as they raise the flags on the podium. After the anthem, "We Are the Champions" played so everyone was singing and dancing around. We missed not sharing that moment with our friends and families, but there was something special looking back on it that it was just our team.
