U.S. men top Serbia, earn berth in Italy
FROM the FIVB (fivb.org)
Belgrade, Serbia, In the last match of the 2014 World League Pool B, USA beat Serbia 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 27-25, 25-20) and advanced to the Final Six to take place in Florence later this month. In front of 7,600 cheering fans of the Pionir Hall in Belgrade, the home side failed to deal with the pressure this game brought upon their shoulders.
USA finished on top of Pool B with 24 points ahead of Russia (24 points also but with a lower win-loss set ratio), Serbia (20) and Bulgaria (4).
• USA joins Russia, who earlier registered a straight-sets win over Bulgaria, as Pool B finalists to progress to the 2014 World League Final Six in Florence (16-20 July). Both teams will meet Pool A leaders and hosts Italy, Iran (second in group A) and Brazil (third) plus the Group 2 Final Four winners to be decided in Sydney next week (11-13 July).
Micah Christenson the setter, Erik Shoji the libero. Kawika Shoji did not play. More balanced attack from the USMatt Anderson with 17 kills, Max Holt with 11 and Taylor Sander with 11. U.S. finished with a 7-3 edge in aces,
COMMENTS
Comments are closed.
USA earned a well-deserved vacation in Europe. I hope that they stay there and not come back home to practice so that they can be well rested and not have to deal with jet lag. Any idea where will they stay until the Final Six two weeks from now?
I finally got to see the replay of the games between US and Russia last weekend on USN. In the first game, US had a match point in set 3 but then gave it away. The match went to a long set 5 – might have gone either way but the US prevailed 21-19. On the second game, US never had a chance the first 2 sets – fought hard the 3rd set but the Russians prevailed and played very confident all the way. For those who have USN, the replay of the 2 games between US and Serbia will be Sat. 7/12 and Sunday 7/13 both 6:00 – 8:00 AM.
1. they will be back in Anaheim this week.