USA women return to winning form at World Cup

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Public Relations & Publications

One night after suffering its first loss of the World Cup, the USA women's national volleyball team returned to the win column Sunday afternoon (Saturday night in the United States). But it was not easy.

Keba Phipps scored a team-high 21 points to lead five players in double figures as the United States edged Turkey, 3-2, in front of 5,830 fans at the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Sapporo, Japan,

Phipps had 16 kills, three blocks and two service aces in the 24-26, 25-22, 26-24, 22-25, 15-10 victory for Team USA at the first Olympic qualifier of the quadrennial.

The top three teams at the 12-team, two-week, round-robin tournament earn automatic bids to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Logan Tom scored 16 points, Heather Bown and Nancy Metcalf each tallied 15 points and Danielle Scott added 14 points as the United States improved to 6-1 at the tournament with four matches left to play.

Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) had 11 kills, three blocks and two aces, Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) posted 11 kills and a match-high four blocks, and Metcalf had 14 kills and one block.

Scott (Baton Rouge, La.), who ranks first in blocking (1.07 blocks per set) and fourth in scoring (105 total points) among all players, chipped in with 12 kills and two blocks.

As a team, the United States outblocked Turkey, 14-9.

Natalia Hanikoglu and Aysun Ozbek each scored 24 points to lead Turkey, which dropped to 2-5.

In other early action on Sunday, Cuba crushed Egypt (3-0), Italy swept Poland and China won its seventh match of the tournament without a loss by beating Argentina in straight sets.

The USA women will now play the Dominican Republic on Monday, Nov. 10, to conclude the third round.

In the fourth and final round (Nov. 13-15), Team USA squares off against China, Brazil and four-time defending World Cup champion Cuba (1989, 1991, 1995 and 1999) in Osaka.

For more information, go to the USA Volleyball web site.