ATHENS, Greece, August 27, 2004.-  After 12 years of dominance at the Olympic Games, it is time for a new queen to rise for women’s volleyball.  Cuba was  forced to abandon their throne and the dreams for a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal after today’s defeat to world’s no. 1 China by 3-2 sets (25-22, 25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 15-10).

The new queen will be crowned at the final match on Saturday. Once again China and Cuba lived up to the hype in a great semifinal, which took place at the Peace and Friendship Stadium. Unfortunately, only one team was supposed to win and qualify to the final and at the end China was the more capable and lucky one to do so. More Spanish

Hao Yang led five Chinese in double figures with 23 points. Lina Wang, Suhong Zhou and Ping Zhang each scored 15 and Yanan Liu added 10.

Yumilka Ruiz was the best Cuban attacker with 18 points and Zoila Barros added 17. Yaima Ortiz had 13 points and Nancy Carrillo and Liana Mesa each had 9.

China will now face Russia at Saturday’s final, while Cuba will compete against Brazil for the bronze medal.