FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championships Recap: Wednesday's Pool C matches
The first round of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women's Volleyball World Championship finished on Wednesday in Japan. Four teams from each pool of six advanced to the second round.
The USA, which has been one of the top teams of the tournament so far, finished in first place in Pool C.
Pool C
Kazakhstan vs Croatia
Croatia beat Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-18) to improve to 2-3, but it wasn’t enough to advance to the second round despite having identical records to Thailand and Cuba. Croatia has a point differential
ratio of 0.899 compared to Thailand's 0.96, and Cuba's 0.993 and finished in fifth place. Kazakhstan fell to 0-5, and finished in sixth.
Maja Poljak led all Croatia scorers with 12 points while Olga Drobyshevskaya had 12 for Kazakhstan.
“Today was a difficult match because we didn't have much of a chance to advance, so it was difficult to find the stimulation to play a match that doesn't have much importance for us,” said Croatia’s captain,
Maja Poljak. “But I'm happy we left with our heads up and we gave our best to the very end.”
Germany vs Thailand
Germany locked up second place in the Pool with a convincing 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-10) victory over Thailand. Germany improved to 4-1 and Thailand fell to 2-3, but finished in fourth spot, earning a spot
in the second round. Germany used a significant height advantage to beat the Thais in blocking 17-33.
Margareta Kozuch led Germany with 16 points, and Onuma Sittirak had the most for Thailand with eight.
“I want to congratulate Germany. Today they showed the quality of their staff and players, who did well in all techniques. It was a complete success for the German team today,” said the Thailand coach,
Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai. “Our team had a lot of anxiety and stress and as our techniques started to fail, it didn't help the psychology of the team.”
Cuba vs USA
The Cubans handed the USA their second set loss of the tournament, but ultimately fell to the Americans in the match 3-1 (30-28, 25-23, 22-25, 25-23). The USA finished with a perfect 5-0 record while Cuba
fell to 2-3. Cuba has consistently improved in this tournament, and looked good against a strong US team.
Kenia Carcaces had a match-high 23 points for Cuba, and Destinee Hooker led the American team with 20.
“It was a battle. It was a tough match,” said Hugh McCutcheon, coach of the USA. “I thought it was a very high level of Volleyball from both sides. From our point of view I think we made an uncharacteristically
high number of unforced errors, and that has to change if we're going to be successful in the next round.”
The USA (1), Germany (2), Cuba (3), and Thailand (4) will advance to Pool F in the second round.
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