MEXICALI, Baja California, May 31, 2008.- USA recovered from a painful loss in five sets to the Dominican Republic one night earlier and beat Costa Rica in straight sets (25-20, 25-10, 27-25) to even its record at 1-1 in Pool A of the Women’s Pan American Cup.

Alexis Crimes led USA with 12 points and Cynthia Barboza added 10. Karen Cope was the best Costa Rican with 13 points.

Both teams battled hard for the most part of the first set, but at the end the more experienced Americans prevailed with Crimes and Richards providing the key points.

The second set was one-sided for the USA Team which established a solid blocking. Barboza, Richards and Stalls were outstanding in the attack.

The Americans overcame two set-points and deficits of 11-16 and 20-23 to win the third set when Olsovsky served an ace and Costa Rican libero made an unforced error while passing.

“Our goal is to improve with every match and to finish among the top four,” said Tom Hogan, the American coach. “After the heartbreaking loss to Dominican Republic last night, I feel satisfied with this victory.”

“We had a lot of up and downs during the match,” said Braulio Godinez, the Costa Rican coach. “We made too many errors. For the moment our goal is to recapture the shape we had two years ago.”