Defending champion USA makes it to finals – 2011 FIVB Women’s Grand Prix
Defending champions of the 2011 FIVB Women’s Grand Prix, Team U.S.A clinched success in the semi-final on Saturday, August 27. They were challenged by the Serbian team, which ended up receiving a straight set defeat. The Americans proved to be the better
team and built a score of 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, and 25-21). The crucial semi-final match was played at Macau East Asian Games Dome in the Chinese city of Macau. A large number of spectators showed up to witness the thrilling action of the two best teams of the
world.
20 points were contributed by USA’s top spiker Destinee Hooker. She was credited for 15 successful attack attempts and 5 serves. She was also named the top-scorer of the match. On the Russian side, Brakocevic Jovana was the most highlighted player. She obtained
19 points, all on attack.
Logan Tom and Destinee of USA opened the match on a good note and quickly showed their on-fire momentum with sharp attacks. Serbia trailed behind with four points at the first technical timeout. The serve and reception errors by the Serbian team helped U.S.A
to claim the first set at 25-22.
Brakocevic Jovana of Serbia attacked aggressively in the following set and put her team back on track. The Serbs played sensibly and managed to steal some points. Akinradewo Foluke detracted them and destroyed Serbia’s blocking. The American team once again
outshone Serbia with a better score in the second set 25-20.
The third set saw impressive digging and spikes from both sides and tension lasted until the match points. Serbia tried to push opponents behind but the Americans were all prepared to win the match. They put 25-21 on the scoreboard and declared match victory.
USA is now scheduled to take on Brazil in the final showdown of the 2011 FIVB Grand Prix.
Zoran Terzic, the Serbian player appreciated the game played by USA. He said: “We played three times against the USA, and all three times we played well, but the quality of USA was better tonight and that was it. I have a lot of respect for the USA team,
not only for the quality of the players but also their attitude and the coaches. It is a big thing for us to play against them at this level. I hope we can play another good game tomorrow against Russia for the third place.”
U.S. Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon was praised for his great game plan. He also had his say about the Serbian team. He regarded them as a strong team in the world and admired their remarkable run at this tournament. He said it was not easy to beat Serbia but
good serving and solid defence enabled USA to earn better position in the match. McCutcheon was indeed happy about the winning performance of his team and hope that they will keep up the same energy for the final match against Brazil.
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