The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 19) -- Four teams are left standing in the Women's Volleyball Tournament after a day of competition that began with straight-set quarterfinal wins for Cuba, Brazil and China and ended with a stunning five-set comeback by the US team.
Cuba, who finished at the top of their pool in the preliminary round, had a shaky start, making a series of reception errors, but in the end had little problem advancing to the semifinals, beating Serbia in straight sets 26-24 , 25-19, 26-24 with a high quality attack. The energetic Serbians ran Cuba close in sets one and three but Cuba held their nerve to win the match and advance to the semifinals where they will play the United States.
Brazil won its eighteenth straight set in a 25-12, 25-20, 25-16 rout of Japan. Brazil were superior to Japan in all departments, although excellent Japanese defensive play made the second set a tighter affair. Marianne Steinbrecher scored five of Brazil's six aces.
Defending Olympic champion China will take their title defense to the semifinals after defeating Russian 25-22, 27-25, 25-19 in the quarterfinal match. China trailed the Russians but emerged victorious in every set. Zhou Suhong was influential, while Wang Yimei organized her offence and joined Zhou in the attack. Reaching the gold medal match will not be easy: their opponent in the semis will be Brazil, who has yet to drop a set in six matches.
The United States got good performances from Logan Tom, Danielle Scott-Arruda and Tayyiba Haneef-Park in their 20-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-18, 15-6 comeback against Italy. The Italians could only score six points in the fifth set due to strong US blocking.
The semifinal matches of the Women's Volleyball tournament take place August 21. The gold and bronze medal matches will be held on August 23.
