Long Beach, USA, June 14, 2016 - The reigning world champions are opening their FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 Group 1 home tournament in Long Beach against Germany, a team that has not won any points from its first three games so far.
Head-to-Head
• United States and Germany already met in their opening match at the 2016 World Grand Prix, with United States winning 3-0.
• This will be the 18th encounter between these teams at the World Grand Prix. Germany won four times, United States won 13 times including their last five meetings.
• Germany's last victory over United States at the World Grand Prix came at the 2010 edition (3-1).
• Their last encounter in another world level tournament was at the 2011 World Cup: Germany won 3-1.
United States
• United States won their first two matches at this year's World Grand Prix in straight sets against Germany and Thailand, but lost their last match against China (3-1).
• United States could lose consecutive World Grand Prix matches for the first time since 2014 (two defeats against Brazil).
• They have won their last five World Grand Prix matches played on home soil, as they won all five Group 1 Final round matches in Omaha last year.
• Only China's Yunli Xu (1.10) had a higher average of stuff blocks per set in Group 1 than Christa Harmotto Dietzen (1.00).
Germany
• Germany lost their first three matches at the World Grand Prix against United States (3-0), China (3-0) and Thailand (3-1).
• Germany, Serbia and Belgium are the only teams in Group 1 without a single point.
• Germany could lose four consecutive World Grand Prix matches for the first time since 2014-2015, as they lost their last two matches in 2014 and their first two in 2015.
• Louisa Lippmann scored a team high 34 points in the first three matches.