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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, August 10, 2008

U.S. women focus to win match

By Dennis Berg
Special to The Advertiser

Punahou graduate Lindsey Berg is one of four players with Hawai'i ties on the U.S. women's volleyball team. Her parents, Dennis and Tina, will be writing diaries for The Advertiser from Beijing.

BEIJING — Everything here was unfortunately and obviously overshadowed by the tragedy Saturday.

It was a double whammy for our volleyball gals, having to deal with the adversity of a courageous and talented opponent at the same time of, more significantly, dealing with the devastating tragedy involving the parents of a former teammate and good friend.

The women were given the news of the tragedy and told to contact their parents to let them know they were OK, with news identifying the victims as part of the U.S. delegation. After the devastation and tears they were somewhat able to focus on the match, disappointed they could not honor the victims while playing with the news being withheld until all family members were notified.

Somehow they were able to focus in spite of Japan putting on a digging clinic, with more spectacular digs in this match than other teams would normally have in the course of a tournament.

The U.S. prevailed over Japan, 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21.

In Game 1, USA played flawlessly, with Logan Tom and Nicole Davis passing perfectly so Robyn Ah Mow-Santos could work the quick middle sets to Danielle Scott-Arruda and Heather Bown, who did not have any errors. That also set the stage for successful results on outside sets to Kim Willoughby and Tayyiba Haneef-Park.

In Game 2 the offense continued to play well, but the blocking defense, which was so effective in Game 1, was given minimal opportunities with several serving errors — five out of six in one stretch shortly after the start. USA did fight back to be only down by one at 21-20, but a passing error and hitting error sealed the game for Japan.

With its confidence soaring, Japan started blocking and digging everything that got by the block. No matter how powerful and/or well-placed the U.S. attacks were, the ball kept coming back, creating rallies that had the ball going over the net six to eight times consistently before a point was scored. USA rose to the occasion and kept even with Japan until 19-19, at which time Lindsey Berg and Willoughby (who had been replaced by Kim Glass) came in for the once-a-game double sub. Berg served out the game with some tough jump serves, creating opportunities for the team to play some inspirational defense with key blocks and digs.

In Game 4 Berg started, to hopefully continue the momentum of the end of Game 3. But Japan went back to its steady and confident play of the previous two games. USA played well offensively and it turned into a back and forth defensive struggle until Ah Mow-Santos and Willoughby came in for the double sub at 20-20. It was an instant replay of the end of Game 3. Ah-Mow-Santos served the match out with Tom and the middles coming up with some key blocks.

Understandably, the end of the match was extremely emotional for the U.S. women. With the tragedy back on their mind, they were unable to enjoy the fruits of victory as the focus was immediately back on the devastation of the day's tragedy and the tears were flowing again.