URL: OC Register

U.S. rolls over Venezuela in women’s volleyball; China next

by Scott M. Reid
August 13, 2008

---

Beijing-Even Venezuela seemed to be surprised to have won the second set in its 2008 Olympic Games first round match with the United States.

“We’re Americans,” outside hitter Logan Tom said. “It’s our job to help people out. No, no, no, that was a joke.”

Any volleyball diplomacy ended in the third set, where all joking aside, the U.S. shifted gears on the way to a 4-1(25-17, 20-25, 25-14, 25-18) 2008 Olympic Games first round victory at the Beijing Technological Institute Gymnasium Wednesday.

Laguna Hill’s Tayyiba Haneef-Park posted a match high 17 points, with Tom adding 15. Middle blocker Heather Bown of Yorba Linda added 10 points.

The U.S. was so impressive in the final three sets that Venezuela coach Tomas Fernandez went so far as to predict that the Team USA will still be playing when the Beijing gold medal final rolls around August 23.

“I believe it is highly probable they will win the gold medal,” Fernandez said.

First the U.S. will have to get past Feng Kun and defending Olympic champion China Friday night (Beijing time) in a super charged match. The match is one of the hottest tickets in town, primarily because the U.S. is coached by Jenny Lang Ping, who remains Chinese icon nearly a quarter-century after leading China to a gold medal in the 1984 Games, the country’s Olympic debut.

Ping knows that the current Chinese side isn’t likely to squander a gift like the Venezuela did Wednesday.

“I think our team had some things didn’t work out,” Tom said. “I know they took a set off us but I’m glad it happened because it made us fight even harder.”

Ping’s acknowledgement that the stakes are about to get harder was evident when veteran Danielle Scott-Arruda spent the last two sets on the bench, finishing with just two points.

“I wasn’t able to adjust,” Scott-Arruda said later. “I can do better.”

She’ll have to against China.