NAGOYA, Japan, November 17, 2005.- The United States are top of the standings after two rounds of games, but the furthest thing from their minds is actually winning the FIVB World Grand Champions Cup.

“We came here with a goal, and that was to improve our level and play more consistently,” said the Americans’ Chinese head coach, Jenny Lang Ping, at a news conference on Thursday. We want to take this opportunity to give more experience to the team, and right now we have still not changed our goal. We have three hard matches to play and I will focus on each one and try to play as consistently as possible, and learn as much as possible from all the teams.”

The six teams are now in Nagoya, preparing to resume play on Friday at the Rainbow Hall after playing the first two rounds at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. USA and Brazil have a 2-0 win-loss record, and are followed by Japan and Poland on 1-1 and China and Korea on 0-2.

 On Friday, Korea will play China, followed by USA against Poland and Brazil against Japan. Brazil are shooting for a first World Grand Champions Cup for women, as well as a title double in Japan this year after winning the World Grand Prix Final Round at Sendai in July.

USA won their first match defeating Korea in straight sets, 25-22, 25-20 with Nancy Metcalf scoring 17 points.

In their second outing, USA defeated China (25-22, 25-23, 26-24) with Metcalf again leading the attack with 18 points and the dominating net play of towering Tayyiba Haneef.

The Brazilian duo of Sheilla Castro and Welissa “Sassa” Gonzaga lead the scorers with 40 points apiece, followed by Japan’s Kana Oyama with 37, and USA lefty Nancy Metcalf and Korean high-school student Kim Yeon-Koung, both with 35.