July 20, 2001

The USA Women's National Volleyball Team won their second match of the 2002 Women's Volleyball World Championships Qualifying Tournament in Puerto Rico this afternoon with a three games to zero victory (25-13, 25-10, 25-11) over Costa Rica. Team USA is now 2-0 in the tournament having defeated Mexico three games to none (25-9, 25-17, 25-12) last night in the opening day of play in the 2002 Women's World Championship Qualification Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"We played a little better than yesterday but still need to work on our first-ball side-out execution and especially on our blocking," said Toshiaki Yoshida, USA Women's National Team Head Coach.

Team USA was led in scoring Sarah Noriega (Ulysses, Kansas/Loyola Marymount University) and Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah/Stanford University) each with 12 points. Noriega scored 11 kills and 1 block while Tom scored 7 kills, 1 block, and 4 service aces. Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, California/UC Santa Barbara/Hawaii) and Danielle Scott (Baton Rouge, Louisiana/Long Beach State University) each pitched in 8 points of their own in the victory.

"We are continuing to focus on our side of the net and create our own rhythm," said Sarah Noriega. "Costa Rica was a very scrappy team and it took us a while to get the right timing on the block. I feel that things are starting to come together and I'm excited to get to play Puerto Rico tomorrow. We will have to play the best that we can tomorrow to win."

"Our major focus for tonight was to improve our side of the net," said Heather Bown. "We wanted to control what we could on our side, the execution of plays, as well as good passing. We are still continuing to improve as a team and play at a high level no matter who is on the other side of the net."

Team USA will next be in action tomorrow afternoon as they take on Puerto Rico at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

The USA will look to be one of the two teams from Pool L to earn a bid to the 2002 Women's Volleyball World Championships, which will be held in Germany, August 30 to September 15, 2002. The USA will face Mexico, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico this weekend in a round robin format with the top two finishers qualifying for the 2002 World Championships.

A total of 24 teams will qualify for the 2002 Women's Volleyball World Championships. Two teams received automatic berths to the World Championships, Cuba by virtue of being the defending World Champions from 1998 and Germany by virtue of being the host country for the 2002 World Championships. The other 22 teams trying to qualify for the event must qualify through qualification tournaments hosted by the Confederation of which it is a member. The NORCECA Confederation of which the United States is a member of is allotted five qualified spots for the 2002 World Championships. Cuba has already qualified in one to the five spots by virtue of winning the last World Championships in 1998. The other four teams who will qualify for the 2002 World Championships will be the top two finishers of both Pool K and Pool L. The team finishing in third place in both Pool K and Pool L will also have one other chance to qualify for the 2002 World Championships. The highest ranked third place team between Pool K and Pool L (through the FIVB point system) will face Venezuela (third place of Pool M) with the winner qualifying for the final spot in the 2002 World Championships. Please visit the FIVB website at www.fivb.org for more information on qualification procedures for the 2002 Women's Volleyball World Championships.

courtesy of USA Volleyball