U.S. Women End Vacation With Three-Game Sweep : West Germans Dig Hole With Service Errors; Every American Sees Action in Easy Victory

They way West Germany was serving against the United States women’s volleyball team Friday, it wasn’t even a good bet to win a pizza.

With the USA leading, 2-0, the two teams took a five-minute break, and fans tried to win pizzas by hitting empty pizza boxes with serves. Five fans were successful.

The West Germans were not quite so sharp.

West Germany committed eight service errors in the first game and 14 for the match as the U.S. team swept to a 15-11, 15-6, 15-12 victory at UC San Diego’s Triton Pavilion. The match lasted 1 hour 15 minutes, which is tantamount to an early-round knockout in boxing.

The match wasn’t even that close as U.S. Coach Terry Liskevych used every player healthy enough to play. Starting setter Laurel Kessell was out with a dislocated thumb, which she suffered at Thursday’s practice, and outside hitter Caren Kemner took the night off with a slightly sprained knee.

The Americans didn’t really need the help anyway as they dominated the match. It’s just that the U.S. team wasn’t always willing to dominate.

The lack of intensity could be attributed to the U.S. team’s being off for the past 11 days, or more likely it was because the team watched Thursday night as the American B team swept the West Germans.

“One of the reasons we had West Germany come here was to play our B team,” Liskevych said. “And the only way they would do that was if we played them once. I always hate matches like that. It’s hard to get fired up. We cut off vacation time to play a match like this.”

The Americans looked as if they might put this one away in less than an hour as they took 9-0 and 11-2 leads in the first game. West Germany rallied briefly with the help of the U.S. team. Eight of West Germany’s 11 points came on American errors.

West Germany led, 4-2, in the second game as Liskevych began to substitute freely. With the United States leading, 6-4, the Americans scored the next seven points. Liskevych started his second team in the final game, and West Germany pulled away from a 7-7 tie to take an 11-7 lead. With West Germany leading, 12-10, Liskevych put setter Kim Ruddins back in the game and the United States scored five straight points.

“We’ve been off for 11 days,” Liskevych said. “All in all, I’m glad we won in three, and that’s about all.”

Kim Oden and Liz Masakayan had nine kills apiece, and Jayne McHugh added eight for the Americans, and Melissa McLinden had six kills, all in the final game.