Volleyball: NZ pick Danielle Pierce for Asian Champs

PROUD KIWI: Tauranga's Danielle Pierce never gave up on her goal of making the New Zealand women's volleyball team. PHOTO: JOHN BORREN

Danielle Pierce thought she would never get a chance to wear the silver fern again after eight years in the international volleyball wilderness.

Last capped for New Zealand aged 17 while at Bethlehem College, she never gave in to those doubts and kept her dream alive through sheer hard work and a dogged attitude.

Now all that work has paid off with her selection as a libero (defensive) player in the New Zealand Women's Volleyball team that leaves on Friday for the 19th Asian Women's Volleyball Championship in the Philippines.

"I am super-excited. The last time I represented New Zealand was back when I was 17 years old when I went to America for the high-performance champs for under-19," Pierce said.

"For me it is a bit of a dream come true to have another shot at playing at a whole another level up. I am essentially playing against the some of the best players in the world.

"Expectation-wise we have talked about as a team to make top two in our pool and if we do that we hopefully will go through and play into the top 10. We have Korea, Vietnam and Sri Lanka in our pool."

There are 14 teams competing, including 2016 Olympic champions China along with Japan and Korea, who are also top 10 in the world.

The New Zealand team has a wide mix of ages from 16 to 33 with five of the players from Tauranga and two from Eastern Bay of Plenty.

"The Bay has always had a strong volleyball culture and for some reason we have always been strong," Pierce said.

"Historically players that live here in the Bay have become coaches and schools like Otumoetai College, Tauranga Boys' and Tauranga Girls' have traditionally been strong.

"We have always competed really strongly at indoor and beach volleyball. I am just grateful to be going and have so much to thank my employers HOBEC for all the support and time off they have given me."

Master coach Stewart Henderson has mentored several of the players heading to the Philippines and in recent years with Pierce in the Tauranga Senior A team.

"She has actually made huge amount of progress since she left school. Whenever she has been called up for a squad trial she learns from it. In the last couple of years she has really shone playing against top teams like North Harbour. It just makes your game a little bit sharper," he said.

"Playing libero is a learned situation. You learn to read the game and her reading of the game this year has been huge and so much better than it had been previously."

The best New Zealand has done at the Asian Women's Volleyball Championship was fourth in 1987 and more recently 11th in 2007.

Danielle Pierce Tauranga, Abbie Meredith Tauranga, Lauren Fluery Tauranga, Phoenix Paniora Eastern Bay of Plenty, Stacey Niao Eastern Bay of Plenty, Melissa Cairns Tauranga, Terisa Maulolo Wellington, Margaret Lafaele Auckland, Samantha Cording Christchurch, Fran Edmondson Christchurch, Katie Adamson Christchurch, Danielle Tuagalu Tauranga, Luisa Giles-Baker Auckland.
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