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US Beats China for 2nd Title, Russia Takes 3rd Place
The United States defeated former world and Olympic champions China three sets to one in the final for their second FIVB Word Women's Grand Prix Finals title in Macao on Sunday.
The Americans won in 1995 in Shanghai.
China had finished second in 1993 and took third places in 1994 and 1999.
The championship final Sunday afternoon started closely knit, with lead changing hands for times till a 26-26 tie. Cheered on by a capacity crowd, China won two more points for one set up.
But numerous errors in defence cost China the rest of the match, with Americans winning three sets in a row, 25-20, 25-21 and 25-11, to seal the victory.
"We were not confident of a win as China had impressed me very much with a 3-1 win over us in Harbin (China). We'd decided to give a best shot in the match," said US coach Toshiaki Yoshida. "Our blocking was very good today. We're to make further efforts for a steadier game," he added.
"We'd failed to play to our form today, with poor service, setting and defence," said Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe. "The young players in the team felt hard to be mentally stable. So a second place would be lucky enough for us," he added.
In an earlier play-off, two-time GP winners Russia won in straight sets, 25-18, 25-11 and 25-20, over Olympic gold- medallists and GP defending champions Cuba to take the third place. Russia won in 1997 and 1999 and finished second in 1998 and last year.
"I am sorry that we failed to do better today, but we improved our game to come from behind in the heated third set. I'm happy with our team," said Russian coach Nikolai Karpol. "Although not in good shape, we are more experienced than the Cubans," he added.
"We really wished to win the 3rd place but lost to a stronger Russian side. I'm satisfied, however, with the team's performance as they'd done their best," said Cuban coach Felipe Calderon. " We'd not expected to win the title," he added.
Former Cuban head coach George Eugenio said the team would not change their 4-2 format in the future. "We'd won the Olympic Games three times with such format and we'll use it to win (in the 2004 Games in Athens)," he said.
At the following closing ceremony, individual awards were announced: Elizaveta Tichtchenco (RUS) as The Best Spiker, Danielle Scott (USA) as both The Best Blocker and The Most Valuable Player, Stacy Sykora (USA) as The Best Libero, Zoila Barros (CUB) as The Best Server and Yang Hao (CHN) as The Most Popular Player.
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