China edges USA women, remains unbeaten at World Cup

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Public Relations & Publications

It wasn't easy, but China remained unbeaten at the World Cup when it came back to defeat the USA women's national volleyball team in five sets to start the fourth and final round at the Namihaya Dome in Osaka, Japan, Thursday afternoon (early Thursday morning in the United States).

Suhong Zhou scored a match-high 20 points and RuiRui Zhao added 19 in the 25-20, 20-25, 24-26, 25-20, 15-11 victory for China, which remained perfect at the World Cup with a 9-0 record.

"Both teams played well," said Team USA head coach Toshi Yoshida. "The Chinese team performed good offensive plays in the fifth set. We did not play well in crucial times by making several unforced errors. The Chinese team is very strong and played better than us."

Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) scored 17 points on nine kills, a match-high six blocks and two service aces to lead five players in double figures for Team USA (7-2), which is currently ranked fourth in the standings.

The United States now plays second-ranked Brazil (8-1) Friday, while No. 3 Italy (7-2) plays No. 1 China.

In Team USA's final match on Saturday, Nov. 15, it squares off against four-time defending World Cup champion Cuba (1989, 1991, 1995 and 1999), which currently sits fifth in the standings with a record of 6-3. Brazil plays Italy on the final day.

"We know that the remaining matches are important for us," Yoshida admitted. "We should do well in them."

The top three teams at the 12-team, two-week, round-robin tournament earn automatic bids to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. In case of a tie in the standings, set ratio (number of sets won divided by the number of sets lost) is the first tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker, if needed, is point ratio (number of points won divided by number of points lost).

Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) scored 16 points, Nancy Metcalf (Hull, Iowa) and Keba Phipps (Las Vegas, Nev.) each scored 14 points and Danielle Scott (Baton Rouge, La.) added 10 points in the loss, which dropped the United States to 28-14 overall on the season.

Tom had a team-high-tying 13 kills and a match-high three aces. Metcalf had 13 kills and one ace while Phipps added 10 kills, three blocks and one ace.

In other matches on Thursday (all sweeps), Cuba stunned Italy, Brazil defeated Japan, Korea beat the Dominican Republic, Poland downed Argentina and Turkey routed Egypt.

2003 Women's World Cup Standings

China (9-0) Brazil (8-1) Italy (7-2) USA (7-2) Cuba (6-3) Japan (6-3) Korea (3-6) Turkey (3-6) Poland (3-6) Dominican Republic (1-8) Argentina (1-8) Egypt (0-9)

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