Beijing: Outsiders United States stunned hapless Cuba in the women's Olympic volleyball semi-finals on Thursday in a 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-17) canter.
The Americans had already upset World Cup winners Italy in the quarter-finals and here were up against a side that had won every match so far in the tournament, dropping only three sets in six matches.
Cuba had thrashed the United States in their group meeting with their powerful spikers dominating in a 3-0 victory.
But this win for the States proved a remarkable turnaround based on improved teamwork, according to Kimberly Glass.
"I think the team just came together. The first time we played them Cuba kicked our butts but that didn't deter us," she said.
"We always fight. We came together as one unit. When we first started playing we played individually. It was ugly and we made a lot of errors."
While Cuba had the top three ranked spikers in the tournament in Yumika Ruiz, Rosir Calderon and Nancy Carrillo, their reception play is far less convincing.
They were error-prone here in the first two sets as the Americans, led by coach Lang Ping, a legend of Chinese volleyball, played an inspired game.
They took the first set 25-20 on a Kim Willoughby spike and then stormed through the second 25-16 with Willoughby again sealing it.
Any chances of a Cuban fightback quickly evaporated, though, as they started the third set badly and got steadily worse throughout.
Led by veteran Danielle Scott-Arruda, USA managed to nullify the Cuban spikers while the Latin Americans continued to make a plethora of errors, particularly on the serve and reception.
They made 29 errors compared to just 10 by the Americans, who had six service winners to just one by Cuba.
Cuba's head coach Antonio Perdomo and captain Ruiz agreed on what was at fault.
"The US team played very well, however we didn't, especially on service and reception," said Ruiz.
Perdomo added: "There were two points that differed from the preliminary game where Cuba did very well on serve and reception," he said.
"The US did it very well, and we didn't. They were very well prepared and played to their potential."
Willoughby, who started on the bench and only entered the fray towards the end of each set, sealed the victory again as her final spike was deflected off to the side.
It has been a remarkable rise for the 27-year-old, who has only been on the national team for four months.
She seemed stunned after the victory.
"I was out of body," she said.
"My teammates had enough confidence in me to set me the ball to win the match and I was just thinking is this me? Did I just do that?"
The United States will face either favourites Brazil or reigning champions and hosts China in Saturday's final, the other semi-final taking place on Thursday evening.
Comments
0 comment