USA women's sitting volleyball team win Paralympic bronze medal!

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Media Relations & Publications

Tears flowed for the second night in a row from the USA Women's Sitting Volleyball Team, but on this night they flowed for a different reason.

The USA Women made history Monday night in Athens, Greece, when they captured the bronze medal at the 2004 Paralympic Games with a 3-1 win over Slovenia. The medal is the first of any kind at the Paralympics for any of the disabled volleyball programs (sitting or standing, men's or women's).

Lora Webster (Cave Creek, Ariz.) scored a team-high 19 points in the 25-20, 10-25, 25-18, 25-20 victory for the United States, which finished the tournament with a record of 4-3.

In the gold medal match, China capped an unbeaten tournament (7-0) with a 3-1 win over the Netherlands.

Webster had match-high nine service aces, five kills and five blocks and finished seventh among all players with 79 points. As a team the Americans boasted a well-balanced attack as the six starters all finished in the tournament Top 20 for scoring.

"I think that was our best match of the tournament," said Webster, a recent high school graduate who will attend Arizona State in the spring. "We knew we wanted it and so we showed them who the better team was. But they were ready for us. They weren't letting anything drop and we couldn't take anything for granted."

Allison Aldrich (Schuyler, Neb.) added 12 points and team captain Gina McWilliams (Flower Mound, Texas) chipped in 10 points in the milestone match.

Aldrich, who was fourth on the team and 13th overall with 56 total points, had a team-high 10 kills and two blocks, while McWilliams (15th overall in scoring with 48 points) recorded seven kills, two blocks and one ace Monday.

Brenda Maymon (Sellersburg, Ind.), who finished 12th overall in scoring with 60 points, scored seven points in the win, while Allison Ahlfeldt (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Kendra Lancaster (Sheridan, Ind.) scored six points apiece to cap the scoring for the United States. Lancaster (who along with Aldrich is a high-school junior) finished 11th overall in scoring with 61 points.

The Americans came out obviously energized in the first set and, after making up an early 0-4 shortfall, never trailed for the rest of the game.

But set two saw the energy swing to the other side of the net as Slovenia went up early and the U.S. stumbled, giving Slovenia six of its first 10 points on errors.

Set three was played more evenly by both teams, and productivity at the net from each of the six American starters ultimately prevailed to leave the Stars and Stripes just one game away from the hardware.

The fourth set featured an American team determined to go home with heavier luggage and even with a late run by Slovenia, Team USA was already too far ahead to let the victory slip away. They won the fourth set by a comfortable 25-20 score to clinch the bronze medal.

"It was a great match with a very good team," said Team USA head coach Mike Hulett. "We had a lot of ball control tonight and played to our level. The big thing we talked about before the match is how prepared we were. It's good to see tears of another kind tonight. I'm leaking a little bit myself."

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