Germany bounces back to beat Japan at volleyball Grand Prix

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.