The USA Women's National Volleyball Team today proved Thursday's five-set victory over second-ranked Russia was no fluke. Team USA quickly and easily dispatched Croatia in three sets (25-21, 25-17, 25-19). The U.S. victory sets up a rematch with Italy in the fifth-place match Sunday at the 2001 Montreux Volley Masters Tournament in Switzerland. The Italians beat the Americans in five sets earlier in the tournament.

Outside hitter Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah/Stanford Univ.) made her first start of the tournament and proved to be up to the test. Tom led all scorers with 18 points, including 15 kills, two blocks and a service ace. Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif./Univ. of Hawaii) added six kills and a match high four blocks.

Even though the U.S. team cruised to a victory, head coach Toshiaki Yoshida was not all pleased with the performance.

"We wanted service aces which we did get, but we did not pass well. We have got to play better tomorrow to beat Italy," said Yoshida.

Outside hitter Sarah Butler (Amarillo, Texas/West Texas A & M) came up big for Team USA with eight kills in the match. She thought the U.S. played well after a sluggish start.

"We had a slow start in the first game, but after that we came back and played USA Volleyball in the second game," said Butler. "We had to play our game and keep the intensity up ourselves and we did that very well."

The USA Women's National Team shook off its slow start at the 2001 Montreux Volley Masters tournament this evening with a stunning five-set victory over second-ranked Russia (25-22, 21-25, 25-20, 23-25, 23-21). It was the first win over the Russians for the U.S. team since the 1996 season. Robyn Ah Mow, Nicole Branagh, Elisabeth Bachman, Sarah Noriega, Sarah Butler and Heather Bown started the match for Team USA in a victory where all 12 players saw action.

"It was a great win for our young team," said USA head coach Toshiaki Yoshida. "It seems like we have learned from the losses in the last two matches. We played well at the right times tonight. We did a good job blocking and that was probably the biggest reason for the victory."

USA middle blocker Heather Bown (Yorba Linda, Calif., Univ. of Hawai'i) and opposite Sarah Noriega (Ulysses, Kan., Loyola Marymount) led the team in kills with 16 each. Outside hitter Logan Tom (Salt Lake City, Utah, Stanford Univ.) added 11 kills. Tom rejoined the team just prior to the team's Saturday departure to Switzerland. Russia's Liobouv Chachkova-Sokolova led the Russian attack with a match-high 22 kills on 48 attempts.

Team USA came up big at the net, out blocking a big and physical Russian front line 14-to-13. Bown led all players with six blocks, followed by Noriega with four.

"Both teams came out strong tonight and battled hard to the finish," said Logan Tom. "We were fortunate to come out on the winning side of this match. Russia is a big blocking team but you really have to credit our passing. We were able to get the ball cleanly to Robyn (Ah Mow) and she did a great job setting the ball to our hitters to take Russia one-on-one. It was a total team effort and team victory."

The win gives Team USA a final record of 1-2 in pool B at Volley Masters, but they can finish no higher than third in the pool. They will take tomorrow off before playing an undetermined opponent on Saturday in the consolation round.

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – The USA Women’s National Volleyball Team came up short tonight against Italy 3-2 (20-25, 27-25, 11-25, 25-22, 18-20) in their second match of the 2001 Montreux Volley Masters Tournament in Montreux, Switzerland. Unlike last night where serve reception was the team’s undoing, tonight it was a combination of untimely service errors and communication breakdowns.

Starters for tonight’s match were Robyn Ah Mow (setter), Sarah Noriega (opposite), Stacy Sykora (libero), Nicole Branagh and Sarah Butler on the left and Heather Bown and Elisabeth Bachman in the middle. USA dropped a close game one, won a close game two, was blown out in game three, came back from being down early to win a very close game four and then traded leads throughout in game five. Benishe Roberts entered the match early in game two and did a nice job turning things around for a while. Logan Tom saw her first extensive action as she started game four and finished the match. Tom seemed to be mostly recouped from a pulled ab muscle sustained at Open Nationals in Milwaukee about one and one-half weeks ago.

Team USA was led in scoring by Heather Bown and Logan Tom each with 15 points. Bown scored 12 kills and 3 blocks. Tom had 14 kills and 1 block.

In other action today, Russia handled Japan three games to zero, but two of the three games were very close. Cuba held off a determined China squad three games to one.

The USA will next face Russia tomorrow night, June 14 at 9:00 p.m. The Montreux Volley Masters 2001 is an eight team invitational tournament. The eight teams are split into two pools of four. The two pools (Pool A and Pool B) will play a round robin with the top two seeded teams advancing to the semifinals following pool play. The finals will be held on Sunday, June 17.

Please see below for the complete schedule and results of the 2001 Montreux Volley Masters. Montreux Volley Masters 2001 June 12-17, 2001 Montreux, Switzerland

Pool A Pool B
Cuba Russia
China USA
Croatia Italy
Netherlands Japan

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – The first official match of the new Quadrennial for the USA Women's National Team didn't go as planned for the Americans as they dropped the opening match of the 2001 Volley Masters zero games to three (23-25, 23-25, 17-25) to Japan. The match was held in the Pierrier Sports Hall in Montreux, Switzerland. Starters for Team USA were Robyn Ah Mow at setter, Stacy Sykora at libero, Elisabeth Bachman and Heather Bown in the middle, Sarah Butler and Nicole Branagh on the left, and Sarah Noriega at opposite. The USA blew leads in both games one and two and never really threatened a confident Japanese team in the third. Poor serve receive was the main culprit in the loss.

In the other matches today, China narrowly got by Netherlands 3-1 and Cuba handled Croatia 3-0. Italy and Russia had the night off. Tomorrow will be Russia vs. Japan followed by USA vs. Italy and Cuba vs. China in the nightcap.

Due to technical difficulties, official statistics were not available at the time of this release.

The Montreux Volley Masters 2001 is an eight team invitational tournament. The eight teams are split into two pools of four. The two pools (Pool A and Pool B) will play a round robin with the top two seeded teams advancing to the semifinals following pool play. The finals will be held on Sunday, June 17.

Please see below for the complete schedule and results of the 2001 Montreux Volley Masters.

Montreux Volley Masters 2001 June 12-17, 2001 Montreux, Switzerland

Pool A Pool B
Cuba Russia
China USA
Croatia Italy
Neth Japan