U.S. women shock Cuba in volleyball
BEIJING -- The U.S. women's volleyball team, still looking for its first gold medal to go with silver in Los Angeles in 1984 and a bronze in Barcelona in '92, got to within one victory of that with a shocking three-set mastery of heavily favored Cuba here Thursday afternoon at the Capital Gymnasium.
Cuba had won the teams' first meeting in pool play, 25-15, 26-24, 25-17.
The U.S. -- coached by the one person who knows first-hand about this gold medal stuff, (Jenny) Lang Ping, who was on China's '84 gold medal team -- totally turned the tables on the Cubans, winning, 25-20, 25-16, 25-17.
The U.S. will play the winner of the China-Brazil game, which will be played Thursday night, for the gold on Saturday.
-- Bill Dwyre
Photo: Tayyiba Haneef-Park of the U.S. tries to spike past the defense of Cuba's Rosir Calderon and Nancy Carrillo during a women's volleyball semifinal on Thursday in Beijing. Joe Alexander / AFP / Getty Images
