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COLORADO SPRINGS Colo. (March 31, 2019) – The U.S. women’s snow volleyball team of Karissa Cook, Emily Hartong, Katie Spieler and Allie Wheeler took the silver medal at the first ever FIVB World Tour event in Wagrain, Austria.
It was the second straight medal for the snow team, which won the gold in December in Moscow. Prior to Moscow, none of the four had played snow volleyball before.
The U.S. women lost, 19-17, 15-8 in the final to a Russian team that included two players – Anna Romashova and Olga Filina – from the team the U.S. beat in the Moscow final.
In the first set of the final, the Russians had a 14-7 lead, but the U.S. women scored the next seven points to tie the score. The U.S. then missed two set points before Russia closed the set at 19-17.
In the semifinal, the U.S. women beat a team from Czech Republic, 15-7, 15-9.
Both the U.S. women and the U.S. men’s snow volleyball team of Chase Frishman, Travis Mewhirter, Chris Vaughan and Eric Zaun will head to Italy for the next FIVB World Tour event on April 4-7 in Kronplatz/Plan de Corones. They will be joined there by a second U.S. men’s team – Troy Field, Maddison McKibbin and Riley McKibbin.