Team USA, Former Huskers Capture Gold

MILAN, Italy – Team USA - with former Huskers Kayla Banwarth, Jordan Larson-Burbach and Kelsey Robinson - made history on Sunday, beating China 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 16-25, 26-24) and winning the first world championship gold medal for the U.S. Women’s program at the FIVB World Championship at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan.

The U.S. Women had never before won gold at any of the three major international volleyball events: World Championship, World Cup or Olympic Games.

Larson-Burbach started the match and finished with four kills and two service aces. Banwarth started at libero and led the USA defensively throughout the final rounds of the tournament.

U.S. Head Coach Karch Kiraly became the fourth person to win a World Championship gold medal as both a player and a coach. He won as a player at the 1986 World Championship in Paris.

"We came here to make history and we made it," Kiraly said. "It was a tough battle. I would like to congratulate Lang Ping and her team. They played a marvelous tournament. After we got a 2-0 lead we knew China would never give up. It was a battle to the end and they have some great young players, as do we. I hope that we will be playing against each other in the future. It is just good for the sport to have teams with such history performing at a high level."

On the road to Sunday's title match, this young U.S. squad with five players in their first or second season with the National Team, defeated Russia, the two-time defending World champion, twice, and Brazil, the two-time defending Olympic champion in the semifinals.