USA Women Claim Olympic Silver Medals

 

BEIJING, China, August 23, 2008.- The U.S. Olympic Women's Indoor Volleyball Team had its run toward a first-ever Olympic Games gold medal end just short of the target with a loss to top ranked-Brazil 15-25, 25-18, 13-25, 25-21 Saturday evening in the Olympic Games title match at Beijing's Capital Gymnasium.

 

The U.S. silver medal matched its previous best finish from the 1984 Olympic Games. Team USA, ranked fourth in the world by the FIVB, also finished with a bronze in 1992, its last time reaching the medal round.

 

The Americans defeated second-ranked Italy in the quarterfinals and third-ranked Cuba in the semifinals to reach the gold-medal match, but ran into a hot Brazil squad that had not lost a single set in the tournament before the night started. Despite recently winning their seventh World Grand Prix title, though, the South Americans had never won the Olympics, FIVB World Championships or FIVB World Cup.

 

China, the 2004 Olympic Games champion, captured the 2008 bronze medal with a 25-16, 21-25, 25-13, 25-20 victory over Cuba earlier today.

 

Logan Tom, the leading scorer in the entire tournmaent, tallied a team-high 16 points in the loss with 15 kills and an ace. Tayyiba Haneef-Park added 12 points via nine kills and three aces. Heather Bown contributed 10 kills and two blocks for 12 points.

 

Tom finished the tournament as the Best Scorer with 124 points (96 kills, 19 blocks, nine aces) to out-distance second-leading scorer Yimei Wang’s (China) 120 points.