The United States beat back the challenge of Olympic debutant Venezuela 3-1 in women's volleyball preliminaries on Wednesday, keeping their hope to the quarterfinals alive after this second win.
The Americans, beaten by Cuba 3-0 on Monday, could barely realize their goal of "bringing a medal home" if they lost this match, as they are facing much stronger China and Poland in the rest two preliminaries.
Tayyiba Haneef-Park scored 17 points to help the US took the match 25-17, 20-25, 25-14 and 25-18.
"Venezuela had a particularly good defence and utilized some great hitters, but we played inconsistently in this game especially with our passing," said US head coach Jenny Lang Ping.
China-born Lang will lead her team to play the Defending champion China in the next match on Friday.
"It's going to be a very tough game. China is the host and they play very well," said Lang. "Though I do know well of the Chinese team, it's the players to play the game, not me. We just get well prepared and try to play the best."
Facing tall and towering opponents, the Venezuelans still lived up to their billing as they exhibited mighty fierce attacks, with three main spikers -- captain Jayce Andrade, Aleoscar Blanco and Amarylis Villar - in lethal form piercing the rivals' defence with their devastating spikes.
The US started strongly and came whisker of winning the first set easily after they led commandingly 21-11. However, the Venezuelan fought back bravely to close the gap at 24-17, but that the furthest they could go. Kimberly Glass helped her team clinch the opener 25-17 with a spectacular spike.
The South Americans reinforced their defense with effective blocking and the standout performance of libero Maria in the second set. They led the set all along from a 4-4 draw. Two drop-shots from Blanco gave Venezuela an advanced lead and the set 25-20.
The US team regained their rhythm to show real potential in the third set. Tayyiba Haneef-Park, Logan Tom and Glass lined up to bombard the Venezuelan defense with a barrage of powerful kills to help the team take set 25-14.
The Venezuela wasted an early lead 3-2, but they strived to catch up till a 9-9 draw, when take cover control of the set to lead 17-11, thanks to the powerful spikes of Jennifer Joines and Tom.
The US kept their ascendancy while Venezuela seemingly lost their hearts. The Venezuelans' less concentration and courage cost them dear as they went down 24-18. With a serve fault of Aleoscar Blanco, they surrendered the set 18-25, and the match.
After losing this match, Venezuela is hard to get survived from the preliminaries as three-time Olympic champion Cuba and Europe's rising force Poland are awaiting ahead.
"I'm very satisfied with the performances of my players today. We have played very well against one of the four most powerful teams in the world," said Venezuela head coach Tomas Fernandez. "We know we can hardly go to the quarterfinals to compete with such strong teams like Italy and the US, but we come here to learn."
"Our players have an average age of just over 18. In the next Olympic games, when the other teams have to change over their players, we won't have to change our squad," said the coach.
Earlier in the day, Italy secured a quarterfinal ticket after powering to a straight-set victory over inexperienced Algeria. The north Africans, however, showed great fighting spirit to score 20 points in the second set, the highest in their three preliminaries.
Twelve teams are competing in two groups in the preliminary round with top four finishers from each group to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Host China is in Pool A together with Cuba, Japan, Poland, United States and Venezuela, while Italy, Algeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia and Serbia are in Pool B. The knockout stage runs from Aug. 19 to 23.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)