Germany bounces back to beat Japan at v'ball GP

Germany bounces back to beat Japan at v'ball GP

Moch. N. Kurniawan and
Eva C. Komandjaja
Jakarta

The German women bounced back from their opening loss to
defeat Japan 3-1, while Cuba enjoyed a hard-fought 3-2 victory
over Russia in the second series of the World Volleyball Grand
Prix here on Saturday.

Entering the match at the Senayan Indoor Stadium following its
defeat to Cuba on Friday, Germany initially looked jittery,
dropping the first game. However, the Germans bounced back to
beat Japan 24-26, 25-17, 25-19, 25-19.

On the other side of the net, Japan came out strong in the
first game, showing the winning form it had in its 3-1 victory
over Russia on Friday, led by the outstanding play of Otomo
Ai.

In the second game, Germany's South Korean coach Lee Hee-wan
called on super-sub Atika Bouagaa, who was her side's second top
scorer in its loss to Cuba.

Bouagaa teamed up with in-form Angelina Grun, proving a mean
shield against the Japanese spikers.

While on the attack, the two caused havoc in the Japanese
defense and helped their side level the match at one game apiece.

The Japanese women continued to falter in the third game and
their frustration began to show as they proved unable to breach
the German defense.

Judith Sylvester was outstanding for Germany in the third
game, delivering deadly spikes to help the German team take the
lead in the match.

Japan attempted to fight back, frantically racing to all
corners of the court in the fourth game. But they were only able
to reduce the gap to 15-14 before the Germans took control of the
game at 20-15, before wrapping up the decisive game with a Grun
smash once again ripping through the Japanese blockers.

Grun said at a postmatch press conference that her team was
fired up from their opening loss and found its rhythm on the
court, negating Japan's quick attacks and tough defense.

German coach Lee Hee-wan agreed with Grun, expressing relief
that his team displayed strong blocking against Japan.

"We know that the Japanese players play very fast volleyball,
thus our good performance, especially in the blocking, helped us
to win the match," he said.

Despite the defeat, Japanese coach Shoichi Yanagimoto praised
his players, saying that they had played as well as they did in
their victory against Russia.

Meanwhile, Cuba scored its second victory in the series and
fifth in the season with a 22-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 15-10 win
over a battling Russia.

With its sights already set on the final round in Italy,
Cuba's head coach Luis Calderon said his team hoped to continue
their winning streak against Japan on Sunday.

"We want to win all three games in this series because this
also serves as our warm-up ahead for the 2004 Olympic Games in
Athens in August," Luis said.

Saturday's match against Russia was anything but easy, as
Cuba, the 2000 champs, constantly found itself having to battle
back against the Russians.

Russia's Natalia Safronova and captain Alexandra Korukovets
gave their best performance in the third set, with hard smashes
from the left side of the court, while Anastasia Belikova was
alert in front of the net to distract the Cuban attack.

However, the Russians crumbled in the fourth and fifth game
and handed the victory to Cuba, which had a commanding
performance by captain Yumilka Ruiz Luaces to thank for the win.

Russian manager Mikhail Omelchenko put the defeat down partly
to a lack of experience by most of his players.

"If we had five other players as experienced as Belikova, we
could have easily won this game," Omelchenko said.

Omelchenko said his squad would come out strong in their last
match of the series against Germany, which will determine
Russia's chances of advancing to the finals.