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CISM UPDATE!

CHERRY POINT, N.C. -- Military volleyball players are taking their fighting spirit to the court at the Military Women's Volleyball Championships, being held at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. It was the U.S. versus the Netherlands Thursday.

Six countries are duking it out at the military championships, sponsored by the International Military Sports Council. Team USA was chosen after players competed for their branch in the Armed Forces Championships.

"We get to participate as a team, train together for about 10 to 15 days," said Armed Forces Sports Liaison Suba Saty. "As we say military ops tempo is so high, they can't get away from their units much longer than that."

The tournament is drawing fans from all over. It's the first time Cherry Point has hosted a World Championship. Organizers said even though the play is world class, this tournament is about more than just sports.

"The benefit of this is to bring all of the militaries together of course to promote the peace and the possibilities of the militaries to know each other, to know other countries," said Volleyball Committee President Col. Jore Ribeiro from the Brazilian Army.

Organizers say the outreach works. One hundred thirty-three countries are Council members, including Iran and North Korea. "I have found that the politics stays at the door," said Saty. "Yes, we have our differences but we get together with the common goal of getting our athletes a place to get together."

The competition continues through Tuesday.

Click here to see interview!

Bump, Set, Spike!

Cherry Point kicks off CISM tournament

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. (May 27, 2010) – Consiel International Du Sport Militaire, or CISM has kicked off its 31st annual Women’s Volleyball Championship.

After the first day of grueling and exciting battles, the teams went into the second day looking to improve their play in the 2010 CISM tournament, held at the Marine Dome aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., May 26.

“After day one, all the nervous energy is out and we can focus as a team to perform better,” said United States team captain Christine Rostowfske after their game one loss against Italy. “For any team, nervous energy can be good or bad; it will make you a little bit more focused or distract you at the last second and make you hesitate.”

The day started off with the CISM opening ceremony held at the Marine Dome, where the commanding officer of Cherry Point Col. Douglass Denn spoke to the athletes and their coaches.

“We are here not only to compete but to bring about international camaraderie,” said Denn. “Fight hard to win on the field of athletic battle but also fight hard to make friends and learn about each others cultures.” The day of competition showed how the teams played their game and what they are all about.

“The Dutch, Canadians and Italians are all really scrappy teams,” said Rostowfske. “I mean they are more defensively sound, whereas the Germans and Brazilians are very offensive. Each is hard to play against in the sense that against a defensive team you get a lot of good spikes - but they don’t fall, and against an offensive team you get a lot of hard spikes hit back at you.”

At the end of the day, teams knew what they had to do to take the gold and bring the CISM championship home with them.

“Defense, defense, defense,” said Canada’s Libero Jamie MacDonald. “That is what this game is all about and without it you can not win. The big digs and blocks will win you games and the kills and the aces are just butter.”

::click link below to see interview::
http://charlotte.news14.com/content/626402/cherry-point-hosts-world-volleyball-championships

Cherry Point hosts World Volleyball Championships