USA are the New World Champions

MILAN, Italy, October 12, 2014 – The United States of America, representatives of the Norceca Volleyball Confederation, are the new world champions! In front of 12,600 thrilled fans in Milan’s Mediolanum Forum, USA overpowered China 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 16-25, 26-24) to claim their first FIVB World Championship title ever. It is a historic night for American volleyball, for this is their first ever title in a major FIVB competition.

Despite their legacy of success over the past 30-plus years, the USA had never won the World Championship title - or any of the three major women's international titles including the Olympic Games and FIVB World Cup before.

Best scorer of Sunday’s gold medal match were Kimberly Hill for USA and Chunlei Zeng for China with 20 kills each. USA had the edge in blocking (14-9) and serving (6-5). 

"We came here to make history and we made it. It was a tough battle, but we made it," saind USA Coach Karch Kiraly.

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USA captain Christa Dietzen remarked: "It's the first time for the USA and we made it. We represented present and future volleyball programs, but most importantly we did it together."

Key facts: United States qualified for the final for the second time at the World Championships. In 2002, they lost 3-2 against Italy.

 United States have won two silver and two bronze medals at the world championships and have become the third nation to complete the medal set following Russia/Soviet Union and Japan.

This was the seventh meeting between China and United States at the World Championships. United States have won four times (1956, 1978, 1982 and today) and China three times (1986, 1990, 2006). United States and China also met in each of the last five Olympic Games, with USA winning the last two matches (2008 and 2012).

China were in the gold medal match for a record fifth time at the World Championships. Cuba have played a 1-2 final four times.

China had won their last 13 World Championship meeting against NORCECA countries, since losing the 1998 final 3-0 against Cuba, but not today.