Ismailia, Egypt, September 12, 2019 - When USA found the patience required to counter the defending skills that Japan produce, the Americans recovered from a set's deficit to claim a 3-1 (17-25, 25-13, 25-19, 25-20) win here Thursday that sees them through to the semifinals of the 2019 FIVB Girls' U18 World Championship.
This sets up a north-south clash of the Americas in Friday's semifinal, when USA will face Brazil who had previously in Ismailia pulled off an epic comeback to knock out Russia.
Semifinals on Friday
• China v Italy or Peru
• Brazil v USA
Japan will next face Russia for positions 5-8.
Japan's Manami Koyama gets the ball over the USA block of Elena Oglivie and Caroline Crawford in quarterfinal action at the 2019 FIVB Girls' U18 World Championship quarterfinals in Ismailia.
Japan kept digging and returning balls to the other side, waiting for the Americans to make the errors, and cruised in the first set.
But Devyn Robinson was on fire and having a brilliant night, not only stuffing the Japanese five times out of USA's total 11 blocks (to Japan's just one), but also attacking for 69% (11/16) from the middle. She emerged the game's scorer with 17 points, overtaking just at the very end Japan's Rino Murooka who registered 16.
USA's Jessica Mruzik strikes over the block of Japan's Natsumi Kondo as the Americans advance to the semifinals of the 2019 FIVB Girls' U18 World Championship in Ismailia.
Japan tried hard to turn the flow of the game in the fourth, but USA had found their way around and persevered to keep them at bay before Robinson delivered with back-to-back kills for the last three American points.
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