Karch Kiraly
USA coach Karch Kiraly: I want to compliment the Russian team on a lot of really good play. It was a very difficult match for both teams; one team played well and then the other. It was quite inconsistent and hard to get into a rhythm, but it was a very good battle between two good teams and we’re happy to come out with the win. It was a really nice effort by every one of our athletes; all 12 players made a nice contribution tonight.
USA captain Kristin Hildebrand: First of all, congratulations to Russia. It was definitely a battle out there today. They played a great match, especially in the first set when they had us off our game. USA did a good job of staying together. We did well in serving and passing, and got a good contribution from the bench. I’m proud of everyone across the board; we had a lot of contributions from a lot of people.
Russia coach Iury Marichev: The Americans played really well, so compliments to USA. As for the result, I’m not satisfied, but for my players I am really satisfied with their efforts. Although our team is different from the one at the European Championship, we have been progressing on the points we need to improve.
Russia captain Ekaterina Pankova: My compliments to USA; it was a seesaw game. For both teams, the match was somewhat unstable. At the start, we were able to go ahead but we were caught out by USA and then we couldn’t win at the end. It wasn’t really like us. But we couldn’t adjust to USA’s rotation. If we’d managed that, the result could have been different.
To read more news from this competition click on World Grand Champions Cup 2013 W.
