Posted at 9:56 a.m., Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Volleyball: Serbia defeats U.S. women at World Cup
Associated Press
NAGOYA — Serbia defeated the United States today, handing the Americans their first loss at the volleyball Women's World Cup.Jelena Nikolic scored 23 points to lead the Serbs to a 28-26, 23-25, 25-20, 25-23 win to improve to 7-2. The United States is 8-1 with two matches remaining.
"Serbia played a very tough match," U.S. coach Lang Ping said. "I think we had a little bit of a problem with our side attacks against the blocking."
The United States will play Japan tomorrow and Italy on Friday, while Serbia takes on Brazil tomorrow and finishes with Cuba.
The Nov. 2-17 tournament features 12 teams bidding for three berths at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The men's tournament will also be held in Japan from Nov. 18-Dec. 2.
In other matches, Cuba came back from one set down to beat Japan 22-25, 31-29, 25-23, 25-20, improving to 7-2. Japan dropped to 6-3.
European champion Italy, the only unbeaten team in the tournament, defeated Brazil (7-2) with a 25-20, 25-23, 25-19 win.
