U.S. Women Stun Host China in World Grand Prix - Articles

Hong Kong – Jordan Larson (Hooper, Nebraska) scored 18 points to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team, ranked No. 1 in the world, to a sweep over second-ranked China 25-19, 25-21, 25-17 on Sunday to conclude the nine-match FIVB World Grand Prix preliminary round in Hong Kong. Team USA finishes the preliminary phase with an 8-1 record and 24 points, avenging an earlier loss to China on June 12 in Ningbo, China. The Chinese entered the match as the only country in the 12-team Group 1 field to remain undefeated. With the victory, the Americans finished the preliminary phase in first place and heads into the World Grand Prix Final 6 as the top seed. The Americans are the reigning champions of the World Grand Prix, the premier annual international women’s volleyball tournament. The U.S. will have eight days off before resuming competition at the FIVB World Grand Prix Final 6 that takes place July 6-10 in Bangkok, Thailand. Along with Team USA, other qualified teams are China, Brazil, Russia, Brazil and Netherlands who will join host Thailand in the competition. All World Grand Prix Final 6 teams except host Thailand have qualified for the Olympic Games, which puts even more emphasis on the week in Bangkok to help evaluate tactics and finalize rosters. The U.S. deadline to name its Olympic roster is July 17. U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly and his staff could name the 12-player roster any time before that date, but it will likely not come out on the originally...

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