US Upset Russia to Qualify for Women's Volleyball Worlds Final

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, September 14, 2002

US Upset Russia to Qualify for Women's Volleyball Worlds Final

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In a battle between two women volleyball squads of giant killers, five-time world champions Russia failed to live up to pre-event expectations and were upset 3-2 by the United States here on Friday.

The Americans thus became the first team to qualify for the final of the 2002 women's volleyball world championships.

China play Italy later in another semi-final on Friday, to determine the winners of the other berth for the championship final here on Sunday.

It was the third time for the four-time Olympic champions from Europe to fail to make it top two at world championships since the1990 tournament. They finished third both in 1994 and at last championships four years ago in Japan.

Former Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, who is on a private visit to Berlin, was present at the VIP box to watch the match. Hecame down to the court-side after the match to shake hands with and encouraged the Russian players.

The Super Power volleyball summit, as the FIVB press writer putit, started with a cautious game for both sides. Russia were in front at 8-5, but it was followed by ties at 10-10 up to 20-20. The Russians were ahead, thanks to powerful smashes by captain andspiker Evguenia Artamonova. They took the opening set 25-21.

The Americans came back strong in the second set, leading from the start of the set to 8-3 at the first technical time-out. The Russians tried to narrow the gap, through killer serves to cause reception problems on the US side. The two sides scored by turn for quite a long period in the middle of the set. But the Americans managed to keep leading their opponents to take the set 25-23 to tie with Russia one set to one.

After the scores were tied for three times in the beginning, the United States came to a 8-5 lead at the first technical time-out of the third set and went on to lead at 10-5 when Russian headcoach Nikolai Karpol called for the first time-out. Karpol's court-side instructions seemed to work, as his side scored three points in a row before being stopped by the US side. After the two sides tied for three more times, the US side came in front due to their excellent back-row defense by Libero Stacy Sykora and efficient blocks by three. The United States steadily went on to win the set25-20, making it two sets up in their favor.

Russia, winners of this year's World Grand Prix, came back intothe fourth set more determined and were not to give up. Amidst the trade-mark loud shouting instructions by a stern-looking head coach Karpol, they improved their game through blocking by 3 and led from 3-1, 8-4 up to 16-11 at the second technical time-out. But errors in both blocking and attacking cost Russia four points in a row. But they were not wavered and continued with their killing efforts to win the set 25-21 and level the sets 2-2.

With a runners-up in 1967 as their best previous performance atworld championships, the inspired Americans went all out in to thetie-breaker, pulling way from a 2-2 tie in the beginning and neverlooked back. After leading 12-8 at the exchange of courts, the United States team continued their advance and sealed the match bytaking the set 15-8.

The organizers shot championships T-shirts onto the stands witha special air rifle, arousing cheers and applause from the spectators to high-light the game.

Russia were the clear favorites for the gold before the tournament, but they are not performing as well as expected. Theyalso run onto the court knowing that their first round meeting with the Americans went the way of the Americans and they also haddifficulties in the second round to defeat Italy and Cuba.

On the contrary, the United States are the big surprise of thisyear's championships. The American team -- a mixture of experienced players and young talents -- has won all their nine matches so far in the tournament and is the only team undefeated.

Two of their victories were impressive. Their win over Russia in the first round and their elimination of defending champions Cuba 3-0 in the quarter-finals.

They have only dropped a total of four sets so far in the tournament.

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