Brazil Defeats USA Women in Lang Ping’s First Match as Coach

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Brazil spoiled the debut of “Jenny” Lang Ping as head
coach of the USA Women’s National Volleyball Team as it posted a 3-1 victory
in the second match of the “Front Range Tour” at Fossil Ridge High School
Saturday evening.

Thaisa Menezes scored a team-high 21 points and Adenizia Silva added 14
points in the 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 25-23 victory as Brazil rebounded from a
3-0 loss in the opener Thursday night in Denver

Brazil faced a different American team on Thursday at Metro State College.
That team, led by Olympians Danielle Scott, Tayyiba Haneef and Robyn Ah
Mow-Santos and coached by Paula Weishoff, departed Saturday for the Montreux
Volley Masters tournament in Switzerland .

Lang Ping, hired by USA Volleyball on Feb. 7 of this year, will be taking
the young team that played Saturday to the Dominican Republic to compete in
the Pan American Cup beginning June 10.

“The only person who was able to put the ball away tonight consistently was
Nancy (Metcalf), but she is our most experienced player,” said Lang Ping.
“Most of the players on this team are young. I want to see how they can
perform at a higher level. We have been training very hard. But our young
players don't have enough ball control and game experience yet.

“You can see it; it’s pretty obvious compared to Brazil,” she added. “And
Brazil is a very young team too. That’s our situation. We have to be
patient and we have to deal with it. We just have train and play and train
and play until they get better.”

Menezes had 15 kills and a match-high six blocks while Silva had 10 kills,
three blocks and one service ace in the win in front of 981 spectators.
Regiane Bidias chipped in with 13 points.

Metcalf (Hull, Iowa ), a 2004 Olympian, led all scorers with 25 points on 22
kills and three blocks for Team USA .

“I think the girls fought hard,” said Metcalf of her teammates. “We played
as hard as we could and we gave it effort. But we needed to have some more
ball control tonight and cut back on our own errors. You could tell Brazil
has been practicing together and playing for a long time; they looked very,
very fluid as a team.

“That’s something we want to improve,” she added. “But with experience I
think things will get better. I know this team has a lot of potential and
we’re going to keep working to reach as much as we can.

Elisha Thomas (Grass Valley, Calif.) scored 11 points on six kills, four
blocks and one ace for the United States . Stanford-bound Cynthia Barboza
(Long Beach, Calif.) added nine points on nine kills while Jennifer Joines
(Milpitas, Calif.) registered eight points on seven kills and one block.

The “Front Range Tour” concludes on Monday, June 6 with a 6:30 p.m. (MDT)
match at the United States Olympic Training Center (Sports Center I) in
Colorado Springs.

Ticket Information

Tickets for Monday’s series finale are still available and are priced at $8.
Please visit TicketsWest.com ( http://ticketswest.com) or call
800-325-7328 to order tickets. For groups of 10 or more, please call The
Sports Corp at 719-634-7333, extension 1012.

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