After losing their first matches against Hong Kong and Japan respectively, the teams from the USA and Chile were forced to win the match in the evening session.
The Chileans were 2-0 ahead when the girls from North America turned the match. Olena Sowers beat Karen Rojas and it was the comeback of a team that was clinically dead.
Quarter-Finals still Improbable After that Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang won their respective matches and the USA won 3-2. “I was hoping I would win for the team,” Olena Sowers said after the team match was over. “We’re really good friends, we practiced one week together in California. Some teams don’t have that.”
The North Americans will face Japan tomorrow in the last match of the first stage. In order to qualify for the quarter-finals, the young US girls must beat the outstanding Asians. “I think they are beatable,” Sowers said, but Zhang put into perspective: “It’s gonna be a pretty hard task.”
