Heather Bown Honolulu Advertiser file photo   Robyn Ah Mow-Santos Honolulu Advertiser file photo   Lindsay Berg Honolulu Advertiser file photo

The Americans got 21 points from Tayyiba Haneef-Park in the final three games to rally past Brazil, 17-25, 16-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-9 Wednesday at Sendai, Japan.

Both teams entered the match undefeated in the 12-team round-robin tournament that ends Nov. 16. The U.S., ranked eighth in the latest FIVB world ranking, improves to 5-0. Italy is also 5-0. The teams meet on the final day of the tournament at Nagoya. Brazil, the third-ranked team in the world and top-rated participating in the World Cup, falls to 4-1.

"Yesterday, I said Brazil had no weaknesses," U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach 'Jenny' Lang Ping said on USAvolleyball.org. "You could tell in the first two sets we weren't at the same level."

But after the first two sets, Ping said: "We played very brave today. We tried everything. I told them you don't have to try and hit the safest spot. 'You have to be brave, to do something different. Brazil is too different; you have to break them down.' "

The last time the U.S. Women's National Team beat Brazil at an FIVB event was in 2002 during the second round of the World Championships. Team USA is 4-15 against Brazil in the last five years, with the first three victories on U.S. domestic tours.

Former University of Hawai'i All-American Heather Bown started in the middle and she had 11 points for the U.S (8 kills, 2 blocks, 1 ace). Punahougraduate Lindsey Berg started the first two games at setter, with former UH All-American Robyn Ah Mow-Santos starting the final three.

"Everyone knows Brazil is a great team," Ah Mow said on the web site. "They are flawless in every aspect: Setting, defense, blocking, passing. For us to beat them, we have to play at the top of our game. They won't give you the game. In the first two sets our energy level was down. In the third set, we had nothing to lose and we came all out. Then they started to make errors and lose and that's what we wanted."

The U.S. travels to Kumamoto Thursday for the third stage of the World Cup and prepares for upcoming matches against Dominican Republic Friday, Thailand Saturday and Korea Sunday.

The FIVB Volleyball World Cup, held every four years in the preceding year to the Olympics, is the first of three Olympic qualification steps for Beijing 2008. The top three teams at the World Cup qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

Teams not making the World Cup medal stand will have two other opportunities to qualify for the Olympics with continental qualification tournaments in December and the World Olympic Qualification Tournament next May at Japan.