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Brazil Ends U.S. Women's Emotional Run

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The Associated Press

Published: August 24, 2008

BEIJING - Brazil won its first gold medal in women's volleyball on Saturday, beating the United States 3-1 and ending an emotional run by an American team struck by tragedy hours after the opening ceremony.

The Brazilians won a tense deciding set in their first Olympic final to win 25-18, 18-25, 25-13, 25-21, blemishing the return of U.S. coach Jenny Lang Ping to her hometown. Lang led the Chinese team to the gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, with a final-match victory over the United States.

"We have nothing to be disappointed for," U.S. wing-spiker Logan Tom said. "You see tears; they're tears of happiness, though. We came a long way this tournament."

Brazil finished the Olympic tournament without a loss, while China beat Cuba 3-1 earlier in the day for the women's bronze medal.

The Olympics started on a tragic note for the U.S. team when the father of former U.S. player Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon was fatally stabbed Aug. 9 at a Beijing tourist site by a man who then committed suicide. Her mother was seriously injured in the attack.

Todd Bachman was also the father-in-law of U.S. men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose team will also face Brazil today for the gold medal.

Against this backdrop, the Americans embarked on an improbable run to the gold-medal match, where they finally met their match.

In the final set, Brazil went up 15-13 on Sheilla Castro's spike, but the United States scored three straight points to go ahead. Brazil challenged, but couldn't pull back in front until Marianne Steinbrecher's spike knocked over Tom and made it 21-20.

Brazil scored the last four points and won it when Tom's spike sailed out of bounds.

The United States has never won a gold medal. It won the silver medal in 1984 and a bronze in 1992.

BASEBALL: The U.S. won the bronze medal as Taylor Teagarden hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the fifth and Jason Donald followed with a two-run homer, lifting the United States to an 8-4 victory over Japan .

South Korea won the gold medal, escaping a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the ninth inning for a 3-2 victory against Cuba.

The Americans (6-3) bounced back 15 hours after a 10-2 semifinal loss to defending champion Cuba, finding an answer on offense each time Japan took a lead.

Japan (4-5) won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006 and had been widely considered the favorite to win gold in Beijing Games.

SOCCER: Angel di Maria scored the only goal to lead Argentina past Nigeria, 1-0, for the gold medal.

The match was watched by a crowd of 89,102 but was hampered by very hot conditions and the referee took the rare step of twice allowing players to stop and take drinks.

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