Posted on: Wednesday, August 25, 2004

U.S. ousted by Brazil in women's volleyball

Advertiser Staff and News Services

ATHENS, Greece — The U.S. women's volleyball team found its rhythm a little too late.

And after struggling just to get out of the preliminary round, the Americans were eliminated from the Olympics a lot sooner than they imagined.

A late rally by the United States fizzled against Brazil in a five-set quarterfinal loss yesterday, 25-22, 25-20, 22-25, 25-27, 15-6.

"We fought back," outside hitter Ogonna Nnamani said. "Being down 2-0 is not easy. I just think we ran out of gas there at the end."

Erika Coimbra scored 20 points to lead the unbeaten Brazilians into the semifinals against Russia tomorrow, with the winner gaining a spot in the gold-medal game. China plays three-time defending gold medalist Cuba in the other semifinal.

The Americans, the top-ranked team coming into the tournament, overcame erratic serving and 32 unforced errors to come back from their two-set deficit. The drama quickly disappeared, though, when the Brazilians took an 8-2 lead in the fifth set. The U.S. team's gold-medal hopes vanished a few minutes later.

"They gave it all out there," USA's Logan Tom said. "I hope people saw that ... and are proud of us even though we came out with a loss. Because I know I am, and I always will be."

The second-ranked Brazilians are one of the most polished teams in the tournament, and it's nearly impossible to build a big lead against them. Their block is almost always in the right place, they're able to dig nearly every ball off the floor and their dangerous attack is deftly guided by setter Fernanda Venturini.

In the end, the U.S. team had no answer. Perhaps it never fully recovered from its disappointing performance in the opening round.

The Americans were stunned in a loss to the Dominican Republic last week, but a pep talk from the gold medal-winning U.S. softball team pumped up the players.

The Americans lost their next game to Russia before bouncing back to beat Cuba and qualify for the quarterfinals. Still, by losing three of their five preliminary matches, they got stuck with the lowest seed and had to face the Brazilians.

"The past is the past," Stacy Sykora said. "It's a whole other team. We were finally playing like USA Volleyball. Anything you saw before the Dominican game was not USA Volleyball."

Heather Bown and Robyn Ah Mow Santos, both former University of Hawai'i players, and Punahou graduate Lindsey Berg, played yesterday. Bown finished with 10 kills, one block and two digs. Ah Mow Santos had a match-high 140 pass attempts and one block. Berg had 11 pass attempts.

Danielle Scott and Tayyiba Haneef led the U.S. team with 15 points each. Scott had nine kills and six blocks, and Haneef had 13 kills and two blocks.

The Associated Press and Athens2004.com contributed to this report.