Warsaw.– The U.S. Women’s National Indoor Volleyball Team swept Dominican Republic 25-13, 25-21, 25-20 on Saturday evening during FIVB World Grand Prix Pool E action at Wroclaw, Poland.

Team USA, 4-1 overall in the World Grand Prix with four consecutive victories, concludes Pool E action versus host Poland on June 29 at 3 p.m. The U.S. travels to Chinese Taipei next week to finish the World Grand Prix preliminary round against Poland on July 4, Turkey on July 5 and Italy on July 6. The U.S. is tied for third in the 12-team tournament with Brazil, one loss behind undefeated tournament leaders Italy and China.

“We actually prepared for a difficult, five-set match,” U.S. Head Women’s Volleyball Coach ‘Jenny’ Lang Ping said. “Dominican Republic is a good team. They got the qualification, and they won the 2008 Pan American Cup. They play very well, so we had to prepare well, try hard and limit the errors. I’m especially pleased with our serves and hope that we continue to do well.”

The FIVB World Grand Prix includes three preliminary round weekends with three different sites each weekend hosting round-robin events of four teams. The World Grand Prix Finals, a round-robin format of the top five teams from the preliminary round plus host Japan, will be played July 9-13 at Yokohoma, Japan. The overall ranking in the preliminary rounds is decided by the total number of World Grand Prix Points (GPP) gained by the teams in the preliminary matches with two points awarded for a win and one point for a loss.

Earlier today in Pool E action, Thailand edged host Poland 19-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 15-4. In other World Grand Prix matches played today, Germany defeated Kazakhstan 25-17, 25-19, 25-21 and Brazil topped Turkey 25-23, 25-19, 25-15 at Vinh Phuc, Vietnam. At Hong Kong, Italy defeated Cuba 21-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-20, 15-13 and China handled Japan 25-16, 29-27, 25-22.The U.S. has qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and is using the World Grand Prix as an evaluation tool to help determine the 12-player roster for the Olympic Games. Team USA faces Japan on Aug. 9 to open the 2008 Olympic Games. Other teams in the American pool are Cuba (Aug. 11), Venezuela (Aug. 13), China (Aug. 15) and Poland (Aug. 17).

FIVB World Grand Prix StandingsChina 5-0

Italy 5-0

USA 4-1

Brazil 4-1

Turkey 3-2

Cuba 2-3

Germany 2-3

Japan 2-3

Dominican Republic 2-3

Thailand 1-4

Poland 0-5

Kazakhstan 0-5