Sapporo, Japan, September 22, 2019 - Michelle Bartsch-Hackley scored 30 points as the United States held off Japan 3-2 (26-24, 22-25, 25-21, 23-25, 15-8) to remain unbeaten (6-0) at the FIVB Women’s World Cup on Sunday.
USA coach Karch Kiraly: "It is always an honour and privilege to play Japan in Japan. They have fighting spirit and never give up. You could see that tonight. Japan has great defence and heart. We are happy to get the victory. Now we start planning for China. They also played five sets today, so we will try to recover for tomorrow’s match."
USA player Kelsey Robinson: "It is always fun to play Japan. They have a great team and great crowd. I’m proud of the way we fought back and responded. Tomorrow against China our focus will be on our centre court."
Japan coach Kumi Nakada: "It is very disappointing to lose. We showed tenacity and other good points tonight. (Mayu) Ishikawa started for the first time and I was able to confirm her performance. Our right-side attack went well at the start. When the blocking systems changed, we became stagnant. We made combination mistakes in the fifth set."
Japan player Miya Sato: "Throughout the match we scored and had some good aspects, but we could not win so I am disappointed."
Japan player Mayu Ishikawa: "Looking back we showed our tenacity. We had bad starts to some sets, not just in the fifth set. We need to be solid in other matches in creating momentum from the start. We became disrupted by the opponent's attacks. We need to refresh our minds now for the next matches."
Youtube