US defeats Japan by a clean sweep in final round of FIVB World Grand Prix - Volleyball
The final round of the FIVB World Grand Prix started today, August 24, in Macau, China. The first match of the final round took place between the U.S.A and Japan. The venue of the competition was the Macau East Asian Games Dome. What followed was an interesting
battle between the two sides in which the U.S. was able to make a clean sweep over the Japanese.
Despite the fact that Japan lost the match in three back to back sets, they did not go down without putting up a good fight. The first set of the match took on tough tones as both teams battled on to gain dominance of the courts. However, the Americans managed
to pull up ahead of their Japanese counter parts and bag the opening set. The second set saw the Japanese slacken in their performance and the U.S. won the frame by a comfortable margin. The third set brought back the fight in the Japanese and they held on
until the end but the Americans were able to seal the deal and win the match at the following final set scores: 25-22, 25-17 and 25-23.
The coach of the American team, Hugh McCutcheon, made the following comments at the press conference after the match: “I like the way USA team played today, I thought we came out and played with good energy. In terms of the service line, we were strong so
that was good. Japan is always a challenging opponent because the of the speed in which they play and the way they battle which is the case today so they are a good team and we are very happy to win over such a very strong opponent.”
On the other hand, the Japanese coach Masayoshi Manabe, shared his feeling in these words: “We played with last year’s champion so we lost a lot of points in their jump serving so that was very difficult.”
The start of the first set saw both teams come out strong but eventually the Americans were able to perform better largely because of superior net play. Also, the attacking skills of the Americans were better than that of their Japanese counter parts. As
a result, the Americans were able to bag the opening set of the game at 25-22.
The second set saw the Japanese struggling with their game while the Americans seemed to face little resistance in marching ahead. Once the Americans got the lead, they did not let go of it until the set had been won at 25-17.
The third set sent a much needed wake up call to the Japanese and they were able to step up their game. However, the effort came in too late as the Americans managed to earn a win at 25-23.
The best player from the American side in terms of points was Destinee Hooker.
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