ATHENS, Greece, August 18, 2004 -- Placed in a difficult pool, the United States appeared to have one easy foe on the preliminary schedule. Try telling that to the Dominican Republic.

Milagros Cabral de la Cruz had the match-winning kill in the fifth set Wednesday and the Dominicans upset the Americans, 26-24, 22-25, 27-25, 23-25, 19-17.

The U.S. dropped to 1-2 and must face sixth-ranked Russia on Friday and fifth-ranked Cuba on Sunday to close out the first round of the Olympic tournament. The top four in the six-team pool advance to the quarterfinals.

Cabral had 21 points while Yudelkis Bautista added 20. Kenia Moreta had 19 and Annerys Vargas 11 for the Dominicans.

``We are all very happy,'' Dominican libero Evelyn Carrera said through a translator. ``We played very aggressively, and we showed the people a wonderful match. We fought each point. We had faith 'til the end. We do not feel inferior toward any other teams.'' 

`We just put ourself in a very, very difficult situation,'' coach Toshi Yoshida said.

Tayyiba Haneef led the Americans with 20 points and  Logan Tom added 16 kills.