Rosa García (PER)
Peru's greatest setter

Rosa "la china" García, they called her "china" because of her eyes... she must have some Asian in her (that explains her extraordinary setting, right?).

For a long time, Rosa García was the player I admired the most on the national team. I loved her serenity, her pinpoint setting, her cool expression, the fact that she connected so well with her hitters, and her versatility. I modeled my serve on hers, my back-row sets, and most important, I have always worn jersey number three in her honour. I met her once at a local game in Lima in 1990, where she wasn’t playing but rather watching with her little nephew. I had asked a friend of mine who lived in her building to ask her to give me a national team jersey with her signature on it, and she did. That day at the match, I told her that the shirt she had signed and given to my friend, had been for me. She was very glad to hear that and in general she was quite approachable and easy-going.

Rosa setting at the Seoul '88 Olympics against Brazil.

Rosa Gisella García Rivas rose to the occasion with the adult team at the ’84 Olympics. She had been included in the Peruvian team that went to the ’81 Junior World’s in Mexico and brought home a surprising second place. Though she wasn’t a starter until Los Angeles ‘84, she began absorbing from her valuable experiences accompanying the team, which is how all great players begin. They sit on the bench, and watch and learn and when a couple of years pass by and they’re asked to step up and show their worth, they are teeming with enthusiasm. Sometimes it works, sometimes they crumble under the pressure. But when Rosa was put under the spotlight, she didn’t disappoint. Quickly, she carved her own position within the lineup and by the ’86 World Championships in Czechoslovakia, she was running the team with her skill and wit.

Setting against Italy at the '99 World Cup as Piccinini looks on. Rosa could still hold her own against the rest! [Photo: Daniela Tarantini, FIVB]

However, the formula worked, and mainly because of Rosa. She was quick in getting to the block on both wings, and by being in the middle, her second-hit dinks worked better, especially on high free balls. Not only that, but both Gina and Cecilia, who played on the right side, often came for quick ones in front of Rosa, thereby producing some form of central attack that distracted the blockers, and leaving the Peruvian outside hitters with more angles to hit. At the ’86 World’s Peru was strong: Cecilia was at her peak, Denisse and Gina were both solid, Natalia provided good ball control, and Gaby—though still learning—proved to be an effective offensive weapon due to her height. The most amazing thing that emerged from these world championships was the quasi-telepathic connection between Rosa and Gaby. It seemed like Rosa needed to just softly glide the ball over to the middle, from whichever position she was in, and Gaby would somehow find a way to make it into a kill. This fantastic duo became the team’s main offensive play because it never seemed to fail. By the end of the championship, especially against the East German team in the third place match, Rosa and Gaby were using this play like a child uses a new toy, and after winning the match the optimism transgressed this championship, for Peru now had a new tool to use in the future, and hopefully, one that could only get better with time.

Rosa’s performance at the '86 World’s was quite good, even better than people had foreseen. Against Bulgaria, the whole team played well, which is why I believe Rosa was awarded the prize for the team’s best player of the match. The funniest thing was that after they announced her name, she was reluctant to go and get her prize—Rosa could be a bit shy. Her teammates pushed her forward as they applauded, and Rosa timidly walked over to the officials, thanked them, and then walked back with her two presents (a box and some stuffed animal). As the Peruvian TV cameras followed her calling her name for "just a little comment to the fans back home", she turned around, saw them, blushed, and walked ahead even faster. Then she suddenly turned around, stretched her arms holding her gifts and made the funniest face I have ever seen from this generally reserved player. (See image to the right.)

After the ’86 World’s, Rosa remained the team’s uncontested setter. In fact, if there was a peril during these next couple of years, it was the lack of a backup setter in case Rosa got injured. I would like to ask Mambo that question: what were you planning on doing if Rosa got hurt? Luckily enough, she didn’t, and in 1987 she was playing some really great volleyball. The Liberation Cup in Czechoslovakia was won for the fourth time, and Peru did it with the help of several junior players, such as Cenaida Uribe, Sonia Ayaucán, and the already experienced Gaby. The other older players such as Cecilia, Denisse, and Gina were playing for club teams in Italy, so these tournaments served for Rosa and Natalia to sharpen their leadership skills. But Rosa was a quiet player, more of a thinking type, whereas Natalia was the opposite—the player with heart. Both mind and heart helped incorporate the other players into the adult team and they did it very well in fact. Though the Indianapolis Panamerican Games weren’t won, Peru went to the ’87 Japan Cup with high expectations. Denisse and Gina were back, but Cecilia wasn’t due to a serious knee injury. In her place Mambo put Sonia Heredia, the younger sister of former setter Aurora Heredia. Together with Rosa, Natalia, and Gaby, this sextet was the best combination Peru ever produced, proven by the fact that they won the Japan Cup undefeated. The whole team played at an even level for there were no real standouts, except for maybe Gaby’s polished middle hits, which now went in all sharp angles and tooling even the tallest blocks. Rosa ran more combinations, like the “stack” with Gaby and usually Sonia or Gina coming behind her. Rosa even began setting the slide on the right side to Sonia, a play that soon Cenaida would adopt, and then Natalia and eventually Gaby. But what improved noticeably in Rosa’s game was her blocking in the middle. I remember on two consecutive rallies, she stuff-blocked the USSR’s Yelena Chebukina right down the middle. Against China—of all teams—Rosa served a couple of aces. And against the USA she took advantage of the still young Keba Phipps by running some quick plays on the right side which drove the USAmerican outside hitter crazy.

1987 foreshadowed great things for the Peruvian team. By the time they were playing their first Olympic match at the Hanyang Coliseum in Seoul, Rosa was running an awesome game. Cecilia was back, though not quite at her level, but her mere presence helped a lot. Sonia sat out and didn’t see much playing time. The rest of the team was sharp, and Mambo used two defensive specialists and three outside hitters throughout the tournament. Against China, Rosa had some spectacular digs in the fifth game to shorten the distance between Peru and China’s fifth or sixth match point (which they never converted). Against the USA and Japan, Rosa hit several overpasses straight down and inside the three-metre line. And though Gaby wasn’t as effective in the middle against Japan, Rosa still used Cenaida and Denisse very often, in combination plays or simply on the outside. Rosa dictated the pace of the match, and since there wasn’t any real dominating player on the team, she had to be more creative in deciding who would get the set and how.

The change in team jersey brought a new look to Peru, but it didn't help reverse the results, which at this '91 World Cup weren't the ones they sought.

After Seoul, Rosa went to play abroad, in fact, she and Gaby played for the same Italian club. Apparently the Italians realised how valuable it was to have both of them on the same team! They both returned to Peru and took the team to yet another continental championship title against Brazil in Curitiba '89. The match was won quite easily because Mambo called Sonia and Denisse back into the team, strengthening it with experience, whereas the Brazilians were still incorporating their recent junior world bi-champions into the adult team. Rosa seemed very relaxed during this game, so much in fact, that in one rally she jumped to convert an overpass and somehow miscalculated the height of the ball. As she dropped, she saw the ball falling right behind her and hoped that someone would please dig it. Luckily, both Natalia and Gaby rolled on the floor to keep the ball in play, and Rosa went back to block embarrassed at her little mistake. Peru managed to win the rally and get the serve back, and Rosa's five other teammates playfully ganged up on her, asking, "What on Earth did you think you were doing?"

That same year, Rosa’s club in Italy didn’t let her leave (I suppose for reasons specified in her contract) and the Peruvian team had to make do without her at the ’89 World Cup. Sonia stepped in momentarily as setter, but then Mambo decided to give junior Jessica Tejada a chance. The reports that came from Japan at the time said that both players did a relatively good job as backup setters, and I believe Jessica remained the starting setter for the remainder of the tournament. But Rosa was missed, especially by Gaby who was 2/3 the player without her preferred setter. However, at the ’90 Goodwill Games one year later, Rosa was back and named team captain. Despite good performances against the top teams, especially against the USSR, Peru was overpowered by force and size. A peculiar fact was that for the first time in her career, Mambo put Rosa to set from position two, like every other setter in the world. That made rookie Margarita Delgado the other middle blocker, which was a big mistake, because she had enormous difficulties with speed. In the third-place match against Brazil, down 0-2, Mambo decided to switch Rosa back to the middle, and slowly the team

Rosa hitting? Of course! She can do most anything (except jump serve, I've haven't seen that yet). [Photo: Daniela Tarantini, FIVB]

began to pick up. Peru managed to come back and force a tie-break, but even then, up 14-11, Brazil caught up and then won 16-14.  As the Brazilians began cheering wildly, Rosa took the white strip of tape under her number indicating that she was the team captain and ripped it off her jersey. Her disappointments continued a month or two later at the ’90 World Championships in China, where despite Gaby’s much improved level and Sonia Ayaucán’s solid passing, the team came in sixth. If one considers how incredible it seemed that Man Bok Park was using this formation in the mid-eighties, then it seemed all the more astonishing that he was still using it into the nineties.

In 1991, I began to notice that Rosa was slowing down as a middle blocker. At the Panamerican Games in Havana, the quick Brazilian middle hitters Ida and Tina were hitting short slides and “one” balls with incredible ease through Rosa’s block. That was worrying because not only was Rosa crucial as a setter, but no team can survive without a good middle blocker. At the South American Championship in São Paulo, the same thing happened, for Rosa seemed to be a step too late. Brazil won the match 3-1 and with it, a ticket to the Barcelona Olympics. Later that year, in November, Peru tried its chances at the World Cup in Japan. Despite a renewed vigour in the form of Denisse, and an astonishing Gaby who was hitting balls from every corner of the court, Peru fell a handful of points short from the last Olympic spot. I don’t think Rosa was the captain at this tournament, for I remember Gaby talking to the referees on the close calls. But if in the times of Seoul Rosa’s setting was good, at the ’91 World Cup it was even better. Whereas before she had really good, dependable hitters everywhere, in ’91 Rosa was forced to be especially creative in her setting, for a number of reasons: First of all, the opposing blockers were taller and quicker, so she had to set to avoid them. Second, her attackers in ’91 weren’t as good as they were in ’88. Denisse was still very consistent, but Natalia’s level had gone down a bit since she assumed the role of vocal and emotional leader on the court; not to mention Margarita and Miriam (the other two right-side hitters) who weren’t solid players. And third, since Gaby had become the team’s main offensive weapon, Rosa had to find her even in the most improbable of places by setting her to the back row, or a long slide behind her, or a shoot to the middle even from the floor. Rosa knew that Gaby was an instant kill, but she had to make sure not to

overuse her. In one of the best combination plays I have ever seen, Rosa jumped to set Gaby a “one”, with Natalia ready for the stack behind her, but instead she back set Miriam a medium ball, and the lefty buried it where no Soviet player could get it. It was the type of play that I replayed over and over because of its beauty. However, the tournament ended sourly for Rosa and her teammates. In the decisive match for the last Olympic spot, Rosa sought Gaby too much against the USA. In the fifth set, it seemed as if that was the only thing left for her to do, because Gaby was the only one who was putting the ball down. The set ended 15-11, and the USA was on its way to Barcelona.

Rosa serves for the first game against the USSR at the '91 World Cup. The set was won, but not the match.

So for the Sydney Olympics, if Rosa and her teammates give a good performance, the joys of Peruvian volleyball may be prolonged a bit more. But when she retires, as she definitely announced she will after Sydney, what will become of the team? No one wants to think about that now, but if Rosa leaves an unfillable void, the team—and the glorious story that it was—will most surely come to an end.