Tokyo, Japan, November 17, 2011 - Beijing Olympic silver medallists USA knocked Italy off the top of the  FIVB Women’s World Cup points table and booked their ticket to the 2012 London Olympics after handing the defending champions their first defeat of the tournament with an outstanding 3-1 (25-23, 25-15, 22-25, 25-21) win at the Yoyogi Stadium on Thursday.

The win guarantees the US their best ever result in the World Cup after two third place finishes in 2003 and 2007 while their 26 points puts the world No. 2 one ahead of Italy, who had qualified for London 2012 on Wednesday, with China in third place on 23 points, ensuring at least a top two finish for Hugh McCutcheon’s side. It was also USA’s fifth victory over Italy in their last six encounters, including two in this year’s World Grand Prix in what has been a remarkable year for the 2010 and 2011 World Grand Prix champions having won 26 matches with only three defeats – to Serbia and Brazil at the World Grand Prix and Germany in the second round of the World Cup.

Women’s World Cup Results/Standings, Match Info, Photos or Live Scoring

“I’m extremely happy for our team, not just for tonight but for the whole tournament and indeed the whole year,” coach McCutcheon said. “It’s been a long international season and our team has accomplished almost all of its goals. This is a special group and I feel a lot of gratitude to our athletes and staff for all the work they do to prepare our team. Knowing we’ve qualified for the Olympics is a wonderful feeling. We have one more match tomorrow, but we’re going to London and that’s a great thing for us.”

In 2007, Italy beat USA in straight sets in their final World Cup match to clinch the title unbeaten and consign the Americans to third place. This time, USA oozed class and confidence to win and with one of the best players in the tournament Destinee Hooker in amazing form. Their shot at their first ever World Cup title looks very hard to stop with Japan left standing in their way in Friday’s final game.

For Italy, the defeat brings to an end a superb sequence of victories in the World Cup, numbering 20 to sit second on the overall record, behind Cuba’s 22 (1995, 1999 and 2003) and ahead of China’s 17 (1977-1989). The last time Italy had lost in a World Cup was against Brazil in 2003 in their final  match. Going into the game, Italy’s Carolina del Pilar Costagrande and America’s Hooker were tied for third in World Cup scoring with 152 points apiece and while Costagrande won the scoring battle with 26 points, Hooker would win the war in this contest, as her 24 points were enough to lead her side to a win.

Meanwhile, Japan jumped into Olympic reckoning with a quite sumptuous 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 25-27, 25-17, 15-12) victory over Germany in the last match of the day and arguably the match of the tournament. It is the first time Japan has ever come back from 2-1 down against Germany to win and carries on an excellent record against the world No. 9 having won 16 out of 24 encounters including the last four. The hosts, ranked fourth in the world, moved into fourth place with the win on 21 points, one ahead of Germany - who are guaranteed their best ever World Cup result - knowing that victory over USA on Friday is crucial while Germany must beat China.

In the opening match of the day at Yoyogi, three-time champions and world No. 6 China kept alive their Olympic qualification dreams with a comfortable straight sets (25-7, 25-15, 25-10) win over world No. 15 Kenya, knowing a 3-0 or 3-1 win against Germany on Friday will be enough to secure an Olympic ticket.

Meanwhile, in the Tokyo Metropolitan Stadium, Brazil secured at least a sixth place finish – which will represent their worst World Cup result since 1991 when they finished eighth -  with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-8, 25-13) win over Algeria while the Dominican Republic dug deep to overcome Korea 3-2 (25-19, 25-17, 26-28, 21-25, 15-12) in only their third win in eight matches against their Asian bronze medallists. The tournament’s top scorer Bethania De La Cruz was again to the fore with 31 points while Korea’s best scorer in the tournament Kim Yeon-Koung recorded 27 points. In the last match of the day Serbia put on a fine display of attacking volleyball as the European champions overcame Argentina 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-23) to move ahead of the Dominican Republic in seventh spot.

With one day remaining in the 15-day competition, it will be a grandstand finish with all eyes on China’s match against Germany in the second game in Yoyogi Stadium to see who will clinch third place while the Japan game against USA will also have a bearing on third spot and title chances respectively, with Italy expecting to beat Kenya in straight sets in the first match of the day. At the Tokyo Metropolitan Stadium, Algeria will play Serbia in the first game, followed by Brazil taking on the Dominican Republic and Argentina playing Korea in the last.

The World Cup, which takes place every four years and offers tickets to the London Olympic Games to the three medallists, comes to an end on Friday after each of the 12 teams team has played each other once, offering three points for a 3-0 or 3-1 win (a 3-2 result gives two points to the winner and one to the loser). The men’s tournament follows in Japan from November 20 to December 4.