USA Women Defend Grand Prix Title Back-to-Back Wins for the Americans

The USA women’s team continues on the path toward being deemed one of the greatest teams of all-time with the 3-0 rout of World No. 1 Brazil to win the second straight World Grand Prix title. The title is the fourth in history for the Americans and the first time they’ve been able to do so twice in a row. The only other team to win back-to-back titles is the Brazilians who have done so on two occasions. They are still the only team to win three in a row, but the Americans have chance of joining them there next year.What was more interesting about this title than the win itself was the ease in which it was won. The American women took control of this match early and never let up. They played a very relaxed match in which everything seemed to go their way. They jumped out to a big lead in the first set, but then let Brazil chip its way back into the match. They managed to escape with a win in that first set 26-24. After that, they seemed to roll along with not much resistance from an uncharacteristically flat Brazil. The USA took the second two sets 25-20, 25-21. The key to the dominance seemed to be the blocking. The US had four stuff blocks to Brazils zero. But beyond that, the Americans were getting great touches on the block and

successfully channeling Brazil’s attacks to the defenders. Just about all of the hitters had great percentages. It seemed as if everything they touched was a kill.The deserved MVP of the tournament was Destinee Hooker who was as usual unstoppable at the net. But the Americans did won the tournament without winning any of the FIVB’s “best”competitions. The Brazilians won four of those categories including Best Blocker, Best Server, Best Digger and Best Receiver. Serbia won two categories, Best Scorer and Best Spiker. The final two categories, Best Blocker and Best Libero were won by Russia. Though Jordan Larson spent most of the tournament leading in the serving competition, she finished in third place. Teammate Logan Tom finished second in serving. Hooker ended up second in the Best Scorer competition, fourth in Best Spiker, 11th in Best Blocker and 13th in Best Server, which explains the MVP honor. Foluke Akinradewo, last year’s Best Blocker, finished in third place in that competition this year followed by fellow middle Heather Bown in 8th place.