The 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games have started and some athletes have even won their first medal. Lauren Carlini and the rest of the USA Women's Volleyball team are just getting started on their Olympic journey.
A lot of pressure is on the USA team after winning gold for the first time at the previous games in Tokyo. The United States is bringing four Olympic debutants to France: Kathryn Plummer, Avery Skinner, Dana Rettke, and Lauren Carlini. The latter of those debutants might just end up carrying the largest of the responsibilities, as she makes her official debut at 29 years old, just missing out on the last Olympics, going to Tokyo as an alternate.
Upgraded from Tokyo Alternate
After the success at the Tokyo Olympics, Team USA has had a lot of new athletes come into the national team pool, as well as struggled with some injury issues. Jordyn Poulter, the setter who led them to gold in Tokyo suffered an ACL injury in December 2022. Poulter is now back on the team and was a part of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) squad earlier this year.
With Poulter out, Carlini and Micah Hancock had an opportunities to become mainstays and book a ticket to Paris. With Micah Hancock also struggling with small injuries, the Italian-born, Wisconsin Badger setter, Lauren Carlini got the chance to go to her first Olympics as an official team member.
Lauren Carlini spent her college career at Wisconsin where she was a three time AVCA All-American. The 6´1 setter have spent the last seven years playing abroad in Europe and Asia and will now return home to the states to play for the Madison team in the new volleyball league LOVB.
Many have discussed who the second setter for USA should be. As a coach, you want to have different type of setters. This way you can always change up the way you are playing and approach different tactics. Some of Carlini's strengths are her defense and her consistency. She is an exceptional defender both off and on the net.
With her height, she is not a liabilty up front blocking. She can quickly read the attack coming from the other team and know where she has to be. Her height also gives her an edge with being able to conceal where she is setting as she has a higher point of contact with the ball, making the blockers across the net not able to read the attack as easily.
A fact that may not be as well know is that setters also tend to be one of the stonger back court defenders on a team due to having to cover the right back area while playing in back row. Carlini is a workhorse, in both the front and back court making her a dynamic player.
Closing Out with the National Team in Paris
After being left off of the final roster in Tokyo and quietly announcing that Paris would be the last thing she did before stepping away from the national team, made the selection to the games even more nervewracking for Carlini.
She played just one match out of three at the first week of this year's VNL. And after also having been left of the roster completely the second week, there was nothing more for her to do except for wait to find out if she was going to Paris or not. The 29-year old was, of course, a little nervous. Her lack of minutes made her nervous, especially after being a big part of the VNL success in 2021 and still being left of the final Olympic roster for Tokyo, she really had no idea how this would go.
Carlini said she herself thought it was 60-40 if she was making the roster, and was constantly questioning how she could've maximised the one match she played in VNL. However, the 29-year old is also an experienced player and has been playing pro for long enough, that she knows all she could do was to trust in her training and her routine and tried not to think too much of it.
And as fairytales often go, Carlini got the e-mail with her initials on the team sheet and could start packing her things for Paris. Lauren Carlini is not done with volleyball and will still play in LOVB after the Olympics, but this will be the last tournament she does as a national team player. Between Jordyn Poulter still not being 100% healthy, players having days off and Carlini being a trusted player with the necessary experience, she has a good chance at seeing the floor in Paris for the US this tournament.
Team USA is in Pool B with China, Serbia, and France. China was the first team across the net and managed to win narrowly over the current Olympic champions 3 set to 2. Lauren Carlini got her long-awaited Olympic debut midway through the first set as she was subbed in to run the offense from the back row.
Ahead of the game against Serbia on Wednesday USA Volleyball put out a statement saying the alternate, Micah Hancock would be replacing Carlini on the game-day roster due to an undisclosed injury. This means her Olympics are put on hold, but she is not out for the rest of the tournament. New to the games this year is that the alternate can be replaced as the games go on, but the athlete they replace can return later in the tournament.
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