Volleyball: U.S. Women Sweep Argentina for World Cup Win The U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team returned to the FIVB World Cup win column with a 25-12, 25-15, 25-19 victory over Argentina Friday evening at Okayama, Japan.
Photo: FIVB - The U.S. Women's National Team celebrates during its Aug. 1 victory over Puerto Rico during the FIVB World Grand Prix.
The U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team returned to the FIVB World Cup win column with a 25-12, 25-15, 25-19 victory over Argentina Friday evening at Okayama, Japan.
Team USA, now 5-1 and in second place with 15 points in the FIVB World Cup standings, will face Algeria (0-6, 0 points) on Saturday, followed by a Sunday encounter with NORCECA rival Dominican Republic (2-4, 6 points). Both matches start at 6:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. Pacific Time).
The FIVB World Cup uses a round-robin format resulting in 11 matches over a 15-day period. The three teams reaching the World Cup medal podium on Nov. 18 will earn berths into the 2012 Olympic Games. For the full FIVB World Cup schedule and tournament details, visit the U.S. Women’s tournament event page at usavolleyball.org/events/8883.
Team USA broke a 4-all tie in the opening set with a 12-2 scoring run to take a 16-6 advantage, then closed out the set with a 25-12 victory. The U.S. raced to a 9-4 advantage in the second set and cruised to the 25-15 victory. The Americans used a key 4-0 run to take a 12-7 lead in the third set, then withstood a late Argentina run to win 25-19.
“We’re happy to win tonight,” U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon (Christchurch, New Zealand) said. “Obviously, every win in this tournament is important. We know Argentina and I think our group was able to come out and control a lot of the elements of the game from the beginning and we made it difficult for them. So I was very happy that we were able to play hard and to make some improvements in a few areas from some of the things we were doing at the beginning of the tournament so I’m very satisfied with our performance.”
Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah) led the U.S. with a match-high 14 points with nine kills on 16 errorless attacks, three blocks and two aces. Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, Fla.), designated as the most impressive player of the match by the local organizers, and Destinee Hooker (San Antonio, Texas) each totaled 11 kills and two blocks for 13 points. Akinradewo scored her points with 19 attacks, while Hooker totaled her 11 kills on 18 errorless swings. Jordan Larson (Hooper, Neb.) chipped in six points on nine errorless attacks, all on kills.
Danielle Scott-Arruda (Baton Rouge, La.) tallied four points with three kills on four attacks and a block all in the third set. Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) charted two kills and an ace for three points, Tayyiba Haneef-Park (Laguna Hills, Calif.) contributed two kills in a reserve role. Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif.) and Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) each scored a kill, while Cynthia Barboza (Long Beach, Calif.) rounded out the scoring with a block.
Lindsey Berg (Honolulu) provided the Americans with 16 assists
