COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 13, 2011) - Destinee Hooker (San Antonio, Texas) scored 18 points to lead the U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team to a 25-22, 25-14, 25-18 victory over Japan on Saturday evening during Pool H action of the FIVB World Grand Prix in Komaki, Japan.

The U.S., ranked second in the FIVB world ranking and defending FIVB World Grand Prix champions in the premier annual international volleyball tournament, improved to 5-0 in this year's tournament with 14 pool points through the first five matches of the FIVB World Grand Prix preliminary round. The Americans, assisted by UC Irvine head coach Paula Weishoff, have now won 16 consecutive FIVB World Grand Prix matches counting the final 11 victories in last year's event. Japan is now 3-2 overall in the tournament with nine points.

The U.S. concludes Pool H action against Serbia on Aug. 14 at 3 p.m. (11 p.m. Pacific Time on Aug. 13). The U.S. has already defeated Serbia once in this year's FIVB World Grand Prix, a 25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 15-10 victory on Aug. 5 to start the tournament.

The U.S. used a 7-0 scoring run to overcome a 15-12 deficit in the first set to capture a 25-22 victory to start the match. The Americans took control of the second set with a 6-1 spurt to take a 7-3 advantage and jumped the lead to 18-11 after a 5-0 run to cruise to a 25-14 victory. Team USA used a 6-0 scoring run in the third set after holding a slim 18-17 advantage to take a 25-18 victory.

"I was very happy with the team's performance tonight," U.S. Women's National Team head Coach Hugh McCutcheon (Christchurch, New Zealand) said. "I thought we played better than yesterday and that's always our goal, to keep improving. I hope to continue that trend tomorrow against Serbia and focus on their team that presents a different style and rhythm. Today, I thought we did a very good job and in so many phases of the game I thought we were really, really clean. So I was very happy with our team.

Hooker scored her 18 points on 16 kills via 31 errorless attacks, one block and one ace. Jordan Larson (Hooper, Neb.) totaled 11 kills on 28 swings and a team-high three blocks for 14 points. Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, Fla.) contributed six kills on eight attacks and a block for seven points, while Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) charted five kills on 10 attacks and two blocks for seven points. Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) record three kills and three aces as part of a six-point night. She also provided the U.S. serving runs of seven and six points in the first and third sets, respectively, to allow the Americans to take control.

"I think the USA had a really good match tonight," U.S. Women's National Team captain Jennifer Tamas (Milpitas, Calif.) said. "Japan plays a very different style of volleyball from us so it is important for us to focus on USA Volleyball and we took care of some details on our offense and put a great match together. We were good at the service line. Logan (Tom) had some great serves at the end and really showed her leadership. So it was a good win for us."

Lindsey Berg (Honolulu) turned in 26 assists on 70 set attempts, which helped the Americans to a 46.6 kill percent with 41 kills on 88 attacks leading to a .386 hitting efficiency with only seven attack errors.

"I thought Lindsey got us into a very good side-out rhythm today," McCutcheon said. "I was very impressed with her choices. Japan made many adjustments and we were able to adjust again and I thought she created attack space."

Tamas concurred with McCutcheon in regards to Berg's importance in the match.

"Lindsey's a great setter and also plays great defense, too," Tamas said. "She gave our hitters a lot of one-on-one situations and really worked hard out there."

Larson totaled 16 excellent receptions on 33 of the team's 47 total service receptions. Tom contributed 14 digs, while Nicole Davis (Stockton, Calif.) charted 11 digs.

Team USA's defense limited Japan to 33 kills in the match as part of a 31.4 kill percent and .124 hitting efficiency. Team USA held a 7-3 advantage in blocks and a 4-2 margin in aces. Japan committed 23 errors in the match, compared to the Americans' 16 errors. Both teams tallied 44 digs in the match. Japan converted 41.9 percent of its service receptions into excellent passes, just ahead of the Americans' 40.4 excellent service reception percent.

"I was very impressed with the changes we were able to make in the match because Japan presents you with many different offensive schemes and you have to really pay attention to what's going on and be able to compensate and adjust in the middle of a rally," McCutcheon said. "I thought we were able to do that. For our team that's a pretty significant evolution from a year ago."

McCutcheon started Tom and Larson at outside hitter, Akinradewo and Bown at middle blocker, Hooker at opposite and Berg at setter. Davis was the libero for the match.

Saori Sakoda paced Japan with 10 points in the match, but did not play in the third set. Saori Kimura added nine points in the loss.

"Today, we didn't have concentration," Japan head coach Masayoshi Manabe said. "The USA's serves were excellent and their block was very high and that put a lot of pressure on my players. Our only really good player today was (Saori) Sakoda, and the center players (Erika) Araki and (Mai) Yamaguchi were okay."

To watch Universal Sports' video stream of the Team USA versus Japan match, CLICK HERE.