U.S. Men Send Russia Home with Loss - Articles

Article by B.J. Hoeptner Evans, USA volleyball: Already qualified for the Final Round, the U.S. nevertheless put on a great show for the estimated crowd of 8,000, beating Russia, 35-33, 25-17, 25-21 on Sunday in the FIVB World League at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Arena. The U.S. finishes pool play at 8-1 and in second place to Brazil. The U.S. will travel to Krakow for the Final Round on July 13-17. The winning team takes $1 million. Russia, which knew going into the match that it would not advance to the Final Round in Krakow, finishes World League at 5-4 and in sixth place. The defending Olympic champion will prepare for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The first set proved to be an exciting opening act with Russia taking four set points and the U.S. reaching five. With the score tied 33-33, U.S. middle blocker David Lee (Alpine, Calif.) scored with a spike and outside hitter Taylor Sander (Huntington Beach, Calif.) followed with one of his own to give Team USA the win. “That first set was amazing, and we were just battling.” Sander said. “It was fun to go to battle tonight and continue to get better on some things.” The long set seemed to take the wind out of Russia’s sails and the U.S. dominated the next two sets. “From our perspective, I thought we did a great job of passing the ball,” U.S. Head Coach John Speraw said. “Russia's a great, tough serving team and I think Erik Shoji...

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