COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Nov. 11, 2011) - The U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team, assisted by UC Irvine head coach, Paula Weishoff, returned to the FIVB World Cup win column with a 25-12, 25-15, 25-19 victory over Argentina Friday evening at Okayama, Japan.
Team USA, now 5-1 and in second place with 15 points in the FIVB World Cup standings, will face Algeria (0-6, 0 points) on Saturday, followed by a Sunday encounter with NORCECA rival Dominican Republic (2-4, 6 points). Both matches start at 6:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. Pacific Time).
The FIVB World Cup uses a round-robin format resulting in 11 matches over a 15-day period. The three teams reaching the World Cup medal podium on Nov. 18 will earn berths into the 2012 Olympic Games. For the full FIVB World Cup schedule and tournament details, visit the U.S. Women's tournament event page at usavolleyball.org/events/8883.
Team USA broke a 4-all tie in the opening set with a 12-2 scoring run to take a 16-6 advantage, then closed out the set with a 25-12 victory. The U.S. raced to a 9-4 advantage in the second set and cruised to the 25-15 victory. The Americans used a key 4-0 run to take a 12-7 lead in the third set, then withstood a late Argentina run to win 25-19.
"We're happy to win tonight," U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon (Christchurch, New Zealand) said. "Obviously, every win in this tournament is important. We know Argentina and I think our group was able to come out and control a lot of the elements of the game from the beginning and we made it difficult for them. So I was very happy that we were able to play hard and to make some improvements in a few areas from some of the things we were doing at the beginning of the tournament so I'm very satisfied with our performance."
Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) led the U.S. with a match-high 14 points with nine kills on 16 errorless attacks, three blocks and two aces. Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, Fla.), designated as the most impressive player of the match by the local organizers, and Destinee Hooker (San Antonio, Texas) each totaled 11 kills and two blocks for 13 points. Akinradewo scored her points with 19 attacks, while Hooker totaled her 11 kills on 18 errorless swings. Jordan Larson (Hooper, Neb.) chipped in six points on nine errorless attacks, all on kills.
Danielle Scott-Arruda (Baton Rouge, La.) tallied four points with three kills on four attacks and a block all in the third set. Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) charted two kills and an ace for three points, Tayyiba Haneef-Park (Laguna Hills, Calif.) contributed two kills in a reserve role. Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) each scored a kill, while Cynthia Barboza (Long Beach, Calif.) rounded out the scoring with a block.
Lindsey Berg (Honolulu) provided the Americans with 16 assists leading to a 54.8 kill percent and .476 hitting efficiency (46-6-84). The U.S. defense held Argentina to a 30.8 kill percent and .198 hitting efficiency.
"Today, we continued our journey to get to London and to qualify," said Berg, the U.S. captain. "Every day we step on the court with a new opponent with respect for the other team, but we have to stay focused on what our plan is and what we're doing. Today we did that and came out very focused and put the smiles back on our faces from our last game and it was a positive day for USA. Now it's done and we continue tomorrow."
Nicole Davis (Stockton, Calif.) contributed 12 digs for the Americans. Hodge, despite just one set played, turned in a team-high seven excellent receptions on 12 errorless attempts. Tom added six excellent receptions on nine chances.
"The World Cup is a very unique tournament," McCutcheon said. "You play this round-robin format and it's really a marathon event, but it's a very fair way to play – everyone plays everyone. It's a great tournament. All teams have to learn the importance of consistency and the importance of embracing the moment of the competition. Every day you have to go to battle and unless you're prepared for that and unless you train accordingly it can get a little overwhelming.
McCutcheon started Berg at setter, Tom and Larson at outside hitter, Akinradewo and Bown at middle blocker and Hooker at opposite. Davis was the designated libero for the match. Scott-Arruda and Hodge started the third set in place of Bown and Larson, respectively. Glass and Haneef-Park were subs in all three sets, while Barboza was a sub in the third set.
Team USA held a 9-3 block advantage and scored a 3-0 margin in aces. The Americans managed a 46-28 advantage in kills. Further, the U.S. passing netted a 25-17 edge in digs and a 53.9 service reception efficiency (21-39) without any errors. Argentina managed just a 26.2 reception efficiency on 65 serve-receive chances.
Leticia Boscacci paced Argentina with eight kills, while Lucia Fresco added seven kills.
"I want to congratulate my colleagues for the win today," Argentina coach Horacio Bastit said. "We knew before the match there was a big difference between the two teams, but we set our goals about how many points we should get. For moments in the game we did that, but in general it was not a good game for us. The important thing at this stage is to get international experience, which is important and to learn from each match against big teams. We must learn from these teams. Now I want to play against the other teams and enjoy the experience. We learn from every match, especially playing against teams like USA. The positive thing about today is that we could serve well and you always learn from a team that plays good in blocking and defense."
In other matches today at Okayama, Dominican Republic defeated Kenya 25-18, 25-14, 26-28, 25-19 and Germany blitzed Algeria 25-10, 25-8, 25-19. At the third round's site A in Sapporo, Italy topped Korea 25-15, 25-12, 25-17, Brazil edged China 25-23, 25-27, 21-25, 25-20, 17-15 and Japan hosts Serbia later today.
