Osaka, Japan, September 28, 2019 – USA defeated Cameroon 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-5) in the second match on the 10th day of the FIVB Women’s World Cup at Osaka’s Edion Arena on Saturday.
USA coach Karch Kiraly: "I want to congratulate both Cameroon and Kenya. Compared to four years ago, eight years ago, the teams from the Africa zone have improved tremendously and are playing a higher level of volleyball overall and should be proud of the gains and improvements they are making. For our team, I’m really proud. We took care of our assignments and did our jobs. We served tough and all 14 players are making important contributions during this long and challenging tournament."
On final match against Korea:
"It was a really impressive win Korea had today against Brazil, playing some great volleyball, so we expect it to be a very challenging contest. It’s not easy to get the ball to finish. They played really good defence. Nos. 10 and 17 and 4 do a lot of good work on offence, so we have to figure out how to contain them. I don’t think you can stop them completely but we have to keep them from having massive success."
USA player Kimberly Hill: "We knew going into today’s game that Cameroon have some really talented athletes with strong arms and are very physical. But we had to concentrate on our side of the net, blocking and just improving ourselves and we did a good job of that and took care of business. I think our strength as a team is that we’re 14-strong. Some of us have different roles, some of us are starting six, some come in to serve. I’m proud of us as a group because even if the roles are smaller, we think they are very important in their own ways and I think that’s why we’re strong. I think that’s going to help in going to Tokyo next year and developing that. We challenge each other constantly and that’s what makes it fun to be part of this group."
Cameroon coach Jean Rene Akono Bekono: "It’s a shame about this loss, but America is a strong team. Even though we knew from the start it would be a difficult match, we are still sad about the result. We only had one week to prepare for this tournament, so we’ve had some tough moments as a result. Now, we have to make sure we play better in the next game. Tomorrow, is a very important game for us and our goal is to win. We know it’s going to be difficult for us. We’ve played more sets than Kenya and we have some tired players, so we have to give them rest to prepare for tomorrow."
Cameroon captain Nana Christelle Tchoudjang: "It was a difficult game today, especially in the third set when our opponents put us in a difficult situation. Now, we must concentrate on tomorrow’s game, the last of the competition, and we want to make sure we will play the best we can. We are strongly motivated to play against Kenya. We want to get a win in our last match and we’ll do everything we can to get this."
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