Kobe, Japan, October 4, 2018 - United States Head Coach Karch Kiraly: Russia started the match out very strong and pushed us on our heels. I really like the way that our team responded and had great fighting spirit; even after a disappointing fourth set we came back strong in the fifth set.
United States Captain Jordan Larson: We knew coming into this match Russia is a great team. They have a great block and defence, so we knew we had to hit high and serve tough and I thought there were moments of that for us. There is definitely a lot of opportunities for us to improve. We are really looking forward to these next couple of days.
Russia Captain Evgeniya Startseva: I thought both teams made a lot of easy mistakes. In the fifth set we did not have the energy. In the fourth set we concentrated on our reception and this got us back into the match.
Russia Head Coach Vadim Pankov: We started very well but we could not continue with the same performance. We improved in the fourth set, especially our defence and our block. In the fifth set we were too far behind early on and could not catch up.