National team of USA
USA captain Kristin Hildebrand:
“First, congratulations to Bulgaria, they had a great tournament and played really well tonight. I’m proud of my team and the way we fought through the hard moments tonight, especially in the second set. We battled to get the win. As for the Finals, we’ve had challenging pools every weekend and I’m excited to get to the Finals.”
USA coach Karch Kiraly:
“I also want to congratulate Bulgaria; they played a tremendous Grand Prix and had a difficult time to get to the Finals. They play hard and are well coached. They have an exciting future with many young players. We also had difficult round, playing Brazil in Brazil, Serbia in Serbia and Japan in Japan, and other strong teams. I’m proud of everyone of our 16 athletes. They all made contributions over the matches to do what we set out to do: to earn the right to play five more matches and stay in Japan for two more weeks.”
Bulgaria captain Strashimira Filipova:
“For sure we are disappointed because we want to go to the Finals and we feel we are close. We started well but then made some mistakes and we lost. It was a very good game for the USA and we enjoyed playing against them today.”
Bulgaria coach Marcello Abbondanza:
“First, congratulations to USA for the win and making the Finals. I’m very proud of my team for all of this World Grand Prix. It’s the first time in the Grand Prix and first time at international level; usually we only play in Europe. We showed the power of our team in this Grand Prix. We arrived at the final game still with the possibility of qualifying for the Finals and this is a great result for us, so congratulations to all my girls for this World Grand Prix. It’s very important to play in this competition and to play these strong teams day after day. This is important to grow and to understand what this high level is.”
To read more news related to this competition click on World Grand Prix 2013.
