Osaka, Japan, November 11, 2006 -- Russia cruised past the United States on Saturday to stay unbeaten in Pool F at the Women's World Championship.
Russia overcame the U.S. 25-20, 25-21, 25-17. The Americans fell to 2-4 in the group standings.
The Americans looked very comfortable early on and soon got into their stride, leading 8-5 at the first technical timeout. But Russia held the score close as both sides defended well and made few errors. The Russians pulled level at 11 and pulled away to 16-13 at the second TTO with some good spikes from Elena Godina and Ekaterina Gamova.
Top scorer Lioubov Shashkova was slow getting into the game and Russian coach Giovanni Caprara called a timeout after a good block by Danielle Scott on his star player that brought the scores to 17-16 in Russia's favor.
Scott repeated the trick a couple of points later but then Shashkova changed tack and next time she was set up for a spike, she pushed the ball gently over her three blockers.
This extended Russia's lead to 21-17 and they never looked back. A couple of spikes from Shashkova helped to bring setpoint and Godina finished things off.
Both teams lost a bit of their edge at the beginning of the second set as errors crept into their games. The Americans edged ahead 8-7 at the first TTO after two Russian mistakes and Nancy Metcalf and Tayyiba Haneef capitalized with two huge spikes to put the U.S. three points ahead, forcing Caprara to call a timeout. But the Russians fought back, sparked by a slick push shot by Shashkova and some poor defensive work by the United States, and found themselves 16-13 ahead at the second TTO.
Two more errors and the Americans were five points back forcing coach Lang Ping to call a timeout. The break had an effect as the U.S. reduced the gap to two points, but the Russians were equal to the U.S. and didn't allow their opponents to get back into the game. Setpoint came with a spike from Gamova and after a couple of U.S. points the same player finished off the set with another slick spike.
The U.S. again took an early lead in the third and again let Russia back in, reversing the score from 5-3 up to 8-6 down at the first TTO. The U.S. then started to become nervy and the Russians, who were playing without injured top scorer Shashkova, moved from 12-9 to 18-11 thanks to three great blocks from Maria Borodakova (assisted by Yulia Merkulova and Marina Sheshenina).
From that point on, the Americans couldn't do anything. Russian captain Natalia Safronova looked as if she wanted to win the game on her own in the latter stages as she thundered down three big spikes. In the end, the match ended with a whimper rather than a bang as Danielle Scott and Nancy Metcalf failed to return a short push from Elena Godina.
