USA women improve to 2-0 at World Cup

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Public Relations & Publications

Tayyiba Haneef scored a match-high 15 points and Logan Tom added 12 as the USA women's national volleyball team improved to 2-0 at the World Cup with a 3-0 rout of Argentina at Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, Sunday afternoon (Saturday night in the United States).

Haneef (Laguna Hills, Calif.) had 13 kills, one block and one service ace in Team USA's 25-11, 25-14, 25-14 victory in 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.

Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) had eight kills, two blocks and two aces for the United States one night after the team edged Korea in five sets to begin the tournament.

In addition to Haneef and Tom, Team USA benefited from another balanced scoring attack. Danielle Scott and Keba Phipps each scored 10 points and Heather Bown added nine points as the world's No. 1-ranked team improved to 23-12 overall this year.

Scott (Baton Rouge, La.) had six kills and four blocks, while Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) added eight kills and one block.

Phipps (Las Vegas, Nev.), who was not expected to play in the early round matches while she was recovering from an eye injury, started the match against Argentina after seeing action off the bench against Korea and blasted eight kills and two aces.

Maria Vincente scored seven points on six kills and one ace while Natalia Mildenberger chipped in with six points on five kills and one ace to lead Argentina, which dropped to 0-2 in the tournament.

The USA women will now play defending world champion Italy on Monday, Nov. 3 in a rematch of last year's World Championship gold-medal match to conclude the first round before the entire field takes Tuesday, Nov. 4, off for a travel day.

In other action on Sunday, China improved to 2-0 with a sweep of Cuba (1-1), while Italy remained undefeated (2-0) with an easy win 3-0 win over Korea and the Dominican Republic (1-1) defeated Poland (1-1), 3-1.

In the second round (Nov. 5-6) the Americans will face Egypt and Japan, while in the third round (Nov. 8-10) the United States battles Poland, Turkey and the Dominican Republic. In the fourth and final round, Team USA squares off against Brazil, China and four-time defending World Cup champion Cuba (1989, 1991, 1995 and 1999).

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