Olympics: Dominican Republic hands USA women stunning loss

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Media Relations & Publications

The biggest volleyball win in the history of the Dominican Republic was also a devastating loss for the USA women's Olympic team.

Milagros Cabral scored a match-high 21 points to lead a balanced attack as the energized and emotional Dominicans posted a shocking 3-2 win over the United States in Pool B action Wednesday morning at Peace and Friendship Stadium in Athens, Greece.

Cabral ripped 18 kills and had three blocks in the 26-24, 22-25, 27-25, 23-25, 19-17 victory for the Dominican Republic that snapped a nine-match losing streak to the United States.

In fact, going into Wednesday's match the Americans had won 24 of the 25 meetings between the two teams, with their only loss coming in five sets (21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 15-25, 7-15) on June 7, 1999, during a friendly match in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"It's a huge upset because we haven't lost to them in so long," said Team USA middle blocker Danielle Scott (Baton Rouge, La.), who scored nine points on eight kills and one block. "I can't remember our last loss to them. It's a great win for them and a historical loss for us, but we can't focus on that. We have two other matches that we have to play. We have to rebound, hope for the best and rise to the occasion."

Yudelkys Bautista scored 20 points on 15 kills and five blocks while Kenia Moreta added 19 points on 16 kills, two blocks and one service ace for the Dominicans, who improved to 1-2 in preliminary play after suffering losses to Russia (3-0) and China (3-0).

Team USA, one of the favorites to win the gold medal to begin the tournament, dropped to 1-2 in Pool B and still has a pair of heavyweight matches on the horizon.

The team plays 2000 Olympic silver medalist Russia in its next match on Friday, Aug. 20 at 9:30 p.m. before concluding pool play with a showdown against three-time defending gold medalist Cuba on Sunday, Aug. 22 at 9:30 p.m.

Did Wednesday's loss turn the remaining two matches into a must-win situation for Team USA?

"I think so," admitted USA head coach Toshi Yoshida. "To get out of pool play we need to get wins, and both of our remaining matches are going to be even tougher. We just put ourselves in a very, very difficult situation today."

Tayyiba Haneef (Laguna Hills, Calif.) scored a team-high 20 points on 18 kills and two aces while Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) added 19 points on 16 kills and three blocks. Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and Keba Phipps (Las Vegas, Nev.) chipped in with 10 points apiece.

The United States seemed out of sync all day and even struggled in the two sets that it won. It was plagued by numerous unforced errors. Team USA dropped the first set on a pair of hitting errors after tying the score at 24-all.

"We were kind of flat coming out and that really hurt us in the first set," said Bown, who had eight kills, one block and one ace. "Had we pulled that one out it would have been a totally different outcome."

In the second set, Team USA started out well before three-straight hitting errors allowed the Dominicans to get back in the game. But they managed to hold on and used kills from Bown, Haneef and Nancy Metcalf (Hull, Iowa) to even the match at 1-1.

The Americans led 20-16 in the third set and looked ready to take control of the match before Cabral keyed an 11-5 run to put it away.

"We never got our rhythm because we could not stop their attacks," said Yoshida. "We would side out, but when we had a serve we could not block, we could not defend.That was a huge reason why we lost this morning."

Despite its sluggish play, the United States kept fighting. Team USA managed to win the fourth set and put itself in a position to win the match.

But it squandered three match points (14-13, 15-14 and 16-15) in the fifth and final set (twice on kills and once on a service error) and allowed the Dominican Republic to post its biggest win ever on the world's biggest stage.

"You have to give a lot of credit to the Dominican Republic," Scott added. "This is their first time in the Olympics and they played really hard and had a lot of drive. We just didn't adjust fast enough to our change in schedule. We faulted on putting forth a little extra effort, completing the little details and in execution."

Ogonna Nnamani (Normal, Ill.) provided a spark off the bench and scored six points, while Metcalf finished with four points. Four-time Olympian Tara Cross-Battle (Houston, Texas) kept her team in the match in the fifth set with two kills and one block and finished with three points. Libero Stacy Sykora (Burleson, Texas) registered 10 digs.

For more information and complete rankings, go to the USA Volleyball web site or the FIVB web site.