U.S. Sitting Team to Play for Paralympic Gold for 4th Time

TOKYO (Sept. 3, 2021) – For a fourth straight Paralympic Games, the U.S. Women’s Sitting Team will play China for the gold medal.

The U.S. Women beat Brazil on Friday, 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25-23) in the Paralympic semifinal at Makuhari Messe event hall.

The U.S. (3-1) will play China (4-0) for the gold

medal on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. in Tokyo (Saturday at 9 p.m. ET). It will be shown live on the NBC Sports app and possibly on NBC Sports Network.

China won the Paralympic gold medal at Beijing in 2008 and at London in 2012. The U.S. Women took gold at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and will now have the chance to defend their title.

On Friday, the U.S. Women led Brazil in kills (35-18), blocks (14-9) and digs (28-7). Brazil led in aces (7-5). The U.S. scored 21 points on Brazil errors and committed 19.

The U.S. has not yet played its best match, players and coaches agreed.

“We’re still not playing up to the level we know we can,” U.S. Head Coach Bill Hamiter said. “We did what we had to do and now we have to focus on what’s next.”

“I really feel like we haven’t played our best yet, which is great because you want to peak at the end of the tournament,” said setter Kaleo Maclay. “Hopefully we are on our way there”

U.S. opposite Heather Erickson led all scorers with 12 points on a match-high eight kills, three blocks and two aces.

“I think we could be better, but we played as aggressively as we could,” Erickson said. “Brazil is a really fun team to play. You look at the score and it feels like it is 20-20 the entire game.”

Middle blocker Lora Webster scored 10 points, including a match-high four blocks, five kills and one ace. Outside hitter Monique Matthews scored nine points on six kills, a team-high two aces and one block. Middle blocker Jillian Williams totaled nine points on five kills, three blocks and one ace.

Outside hitter Katie Holloway finished with eight points on six kills and two blocks. Maclay had five points on four kills and one block. Substitute outside Whitney Dosty scored a point with a kill.