Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDS — The American Samoa national women’s volleyball team narrowly missed out on the bronze medal of the 2023 Pacific Games volleyball competition, going down 3-1 to a fired-up Fiji team.

After a dismal performance the night before against New Caledonia, American Samoa came back with the aim to take home the bronze.

Things looked good in the first set and the team played well with powerful spikes and clever place shots.

The set ended with American Samoa emerging victorious with a 25-20 score.

However in the second set, Fiji regrouped and came back strong to win 26-24 in a very tight game with American Samoa trying in vain to catch up.

With one set apiece, Fiji stepped up their attacks and gained another victory taking the third set with a 25-21 score.

Trailing at one set to two, American Samoa was desperate to equalize.

However, from the beginning of the fourth set, Fiji refused to be left behind and always managed to catch up to their opponents who at one time had a five point lead.

With the score at 21-all, Fiji edged past American Samoa and had the score at 24-21.

American Samoa could only manage to gain one more point to take the score to 24-22, then Fiji scored the final point to seal victory and ultimately the bronze medal.

American Samoa Head Coach Mafutaga Taveuveu stated that his team had tried their best but it just wasn’t their day.

 “The girls gave it their all,” Coach Taveuveu said. “We prepared for the game and the girls after our loss last night, and the girls tried their best. That’s all you can ask for from your players. We’ll go home and reassess our performance to figure out what we need to rectify to improve our game.”

And so the American Samoa women’s volleyball team ends their 2023 Pacific Games campaign at 4th place while the men’s team finished at 6th place in their competition.

The Pacific Games report is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Paramount Builders, Inc. and ASNOC.