Team USA Drops Five-Set Match

Former Huskers Nancy Metcalf, Jordan Larson and Tracy Stalls combined for 31 points, but the United States Women’s National Team fell lost a five-set contest to the Netherlands  3-2 (25-12, 22-25, 16-25, 25-20, 15-13) in an FIVB Grand Prix match on Saturday in Miao Lie in Chinese Taipei.

Metcalf continued her strong play, matching for team-high honors with 14 points despite only playing the first two sets. Larson reached double figures for the second straight match with 12 kills, while Stalls had four kills on four swings and added a block in her first action of the FIVB Grand Prix.

With the loss, Team USA is now 1-1 on the weekend and 2-3 through five matches heading into Sunday’s match.
Manon Flier paced Netherlands with 17 points on a match-high 15 kills and two blocks. Caroline Wensink added 13 points on five kills and a match-high eight blocks.

The U.S. Women had more kills than Netherlands, 55-52 and finished with eight aces while the Dutch had one. The Dutch out-blocked the United States 14-12 and Team USA also had 31 team errors as opposed to 26 for Netherlands. Eleven of Netherlands’ team errors occurred in the first set, which it lost 12-25.

•  Boxscore: http://www.fivb.org/vis_web/volley/WGP2009/pdf/P3-021.pdf