Report By B.J. Hoeptner Evans
The U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team could not work its tiebreaker magic two nights in a row as it fell to Netherlands 3-2 (25-12, 22-25, 16-25, 25-20, 15-13) in an FIVB Grand Prix match on Saturday in Miao Lie in Chinese Taipei.
Team USA falls to 1-1 in the second round of pool play (2-3 overall) after defeating the Dominican Republic on Friday, 3-2. Netherlands improves to 2-0 in Pool D and 5-0 overall. The U.S. Women will play a rematch with Germany on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. local time.
Nicole Fawcett (Zanesfield, Ohio) and Nancy Metcalf (Hull, Iowa) paced the U.S. Women on Saturday with 14 points each. Metcalf, who only started the first two sets and did not play again, had 13 kills and one ace. Fawcett, who started the final three sets, scored on 12 kills, one block and one ace.
Jordan Larson (Hooper, Neb.) scored 12 points on 12 kills.
Manon Flier paced Netherlands with 17 points on a match-high 15 kills and two blocks. Caroline Wensink added 13 points on five kills and a match-high eight blocks.
The U.S. Women had more kills than Netherlands, 55-52 and finished with eight aces while the Dutch had one. The Dutch out-blocked the United States 14-12 and Team USA also had 31 team errors as opposed to 26 for Netherlands. Eleven of Netherlands’ team errors occurred in the first set, which it lost 12-25.
Among other U.S. scorers, Alexis Crimes (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) had nine points on two kills, five blocks and two aces. Foluke Akinradewo (Plantation, Fla.) had seven points on three kills, three blocks and one ace. Kristin Richards (Orem, Utah) added seven points on five kills and two blocks.
Cynthia Barboza (Long Beach, Calif.) scored five points on four kills and one ace. Tracy Stalls (Denver, Colo.) totaled five points on four kills and one block.
Courtney Thompson (Kent, Wash.) scored two points on two aces. She was also credited with 25 running sets and one fault on 111 attempts. U.S. libero Stacy Sykora (Burleson, Texas) was credited with four digs on 32 attempts and 11 excellent receptions and two faults on 26 attempts. Larson had 12 excellent receptions and no faults on 32 attempts.
McCutcheon started Larson and Richards at outside hitter, Crimes and Akinradewo at middle blocker, Metcalf at opposite, Thompson at setter and Sykora at libero. Fawcett started the third, fourth and fifth sets for Metcalf. Barboza started the third set for Richards, who returned to start the fourth and fifth sets. Stalls started the fourth and fifth sets for Crimes. Angie McGinnis (Fraser, Mich.) and Nicole Davis (Stockton, Calif.) played as substitutes.
Team USA opened a 3- 1 lead in the first set on a Metcalf kill and two straight aces by Crimes. But Netherlands came back to tie the score at 3-3 and then 5-5 before using a 3-0 run to lead 8-5 at the first technical timeout (TTO). Netherlands was leading 9-7 when a service error gave Team USA the ball. Thompson served an ace to make it 9-9. Then Team USA scored the next eight points to make it 17-9 before Flier put out the fire with a quick kill. However another seven-point run toward the end of the set gave Team USA the 25-12 victory. Netherlands had 11 team errors. Metcalf and Crimes each had six points for the U.S. Women.
Team USA could not sustain the momentum and fell behind 4-10 in the second set, scoring on two kills and an ace from Metcalf and a kill by Larson. McCutcheon called timeout and the U.S. Women responded with five straight points, including two blocks by Crimes, to pull to within one at 9-10. Netherlands Head Coach Avital Selinger called timeout and the Dutch made it 11-9 on a U.S. hitting error. The Dutch then used a 5-2 run to lead 16-11 at the second TTO and scored again to make it 17-11. Trailing 15-20, the U.S. Women put together three straight points on two quick kills by Akinradewo and a Barboza ace to pull to within two at 18-20. But a Flier kill kept the Dutch ahead and they went on to win the set 25-22.
Netherlands rode its momentum to an 8-3 lead at the first TTO of the third set. Fawcett and Larson scored on attacks to help Team USA pull to within three at 8-5. But Netherlands kept the pressure on with two kills by Francien Huurman and a kill and block by Chaõne Staelens to lead 12-6. Later, with Netherlands ahead 14-11, it scored four straight points on a Flier kill and three U.S. hitting errors to go ahead 18-11 and Team USA could not answer.
The U.S. Women steadied themselves in the fourth set and led 8-7 at the first TTO of the fourth set including two kills and an ace by Fawcett and a kill from Larson and block by Akinradewo. The teams battled back and forth until Netherlands led 10-9. A Larson killed tied the score for Team USA, which then scored four points on an ace by Thompson, a Fawcett block and a Richards kill to go ahead 14-10. Later, with the U.S. Women leading 17-14, they scored two straight points on a Fawcett kill and Akinradewo block to go ahead 19-14 and force the Dutch to call a timeout. A U.S. hitting error made it 19-15, but Team USA used a kill and ace by Akinradewo to lead 21-15. Netherlands responded by scoring four straight points before Fawcett stopped the run with a kill. A Richards block took the U.S. to set point at 24-20. A U.S. hitting error made it 24-21 before a Netherlands service error ended the set at 25-21.
The two teams opened the tiebreaker well matched and were tied at 6-6 when the U.S. used a Richards kill and Akinradewo block to lead 8-6 at the crossover. However Netherlands came out of the break on fire and scored four straight points on three kills and a block before McCutcheon called timeout to try to cool off Staelens, who was serving. However, Staelens responded with a float-serve ace to give the Dutch an 11-8 edge. A Richards kill kept the United States in the match at 9-11. The two teams traded kills to make it 12-10 for the Netherlands, who reached match point first after two straight U.S. hitting errors. Team USA held off the end on a Stalls kill and two Netherlands errors, but the Dutch won the match on a Staelens kill.