PARIS — Bronze.
“We got here right here to win,” USA coach John Speraw mentioned. “I’m very disillusioned.”
You’d count on nothing much less from a crew that aspired to win the Paris Olympics males’s volleyball match and the gold medal that comes with it.
Now Poland will get a shot on the gold whereas the USA goes for bronze towards the loser of the later match Wednesday at Paris Area South 1 between France and Italy.
Speraw and his veterans know the deal. In Rio in 2016, in addition they misplaced within the semifinals and needed to gird up and beat Russia in 5 for the bronze medal. In Tokyo in 2021 they didn’t get to the quarterfinals.
The shot at gold was theirs for the taking Wednesday, particularly when the People led two units to at least one and led within the fourth, the final time at 21-20.
However finally Poland rallied to win that set and took the higher hand within the fifth to got here away with a 25-23, 25-27, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory.
“I’ll have to return and take a look at that fourth set, however it’s what occurs in these matches when a crew is down,” Speraw mentioned. “You’re up 2-1 and a crew has nothing to lose at that time and so they get very aggressive. And so they acquired very aggressive with their serves and so they had been profitable. And when you will have servers like they’ve who get profitable it’s very, very difficult.”
The USA acquired one other fabulous effort from 37-year-old reverse Matt Anderson, whose efficiency in these Video games belies his age. He led with 23 kills, hit .456, had an ace, and made some key digs all through, ending with eight.
He agreed together with his coach’s evaluation.
“That’s what they do. They serve arduous and so they put us in bother and we didn’t give you the factors late in that fourth set,” Anderson mentioned.
Aaron Russell had 18 kills and two blocks, Max Holt had 9 kills, a block and two aces, and Thomas Jaeschke, who subbed for TJ DeFalco within the third set, completed with 9 kills and a block. Taylor Averill had 5 kills, two blocks and an ace and DeFalco had 4 kills, hitting .133.
Setter Micah Christenson, who had seven digs, added a block, and libero Erik Shoji had 10 digs.
“It was USA vs. Poland,” mentioned Shoji, who performs professionally in Poland. “We had been in for an epic match. Robust the way it ended.”
The fourth set was tied 22-22 when Poland’s Wilfredo Leon blasted a kill, aced Shoji after which Poland gained on a kill by Tomasz Fornal.
The USA trailed 10-7 within the fifth and was down 14-10 when Jaeschke acquired a kill, Anderson had a kill from the back-row and acquired to 14-13 when Leon air mailed a spike try.
However Leon ended it with a kill off the block, twenty second of the match. Leon hit .463 and had two blocks and two aces. Norbert Huber had 12 kills, a block and two aces, and Fornal completed with 12 kills and an ace. Bartosz Kurek had 9 kills and two blocks.
“I assumed we confirmed plenty of poise within the fifth set as a result of we didn’t have plenty of momentum going into it,” Speraw mentioned. “We had been down 14-11 and nonetheless gave ourselves a chance.
“Leon may be very, excellent. He had a dip however he got here again and performed very nicely within the fifth set.”
Now the USA goes for bronze, which Anderson mentioned merely, “it’s higher than nothing. A bronze medal is one thing that you simply’re proud to have and proud to win. It’s a medal that it’s a must to win that final match to get it. I don’t wish to depart with nothing.”
Shoji agreed.
“It’s bodily and mentally exhausting that final match and now we have to come back again in two days and play,” Shoji mentioned. “We needed to be taking part in for a gold and that sucks. However bronze is essential and we’re going to do the whole lot we will to win that one.”
Friday’s match towards Italy/France is at 4 p.m. native time, 10 a.m. Japanese, 7 a.m. Pacific.
“It’s one of many nice challenges on this occasion when you will have hopes for gold and also you’ve acquired to regroup mentally and go compete,” Speraw mentioned. “We now have a day to consider that and a day to recuperate.
“In Rio a part of the devastation was what number of alternatives we had and let it slip away. Right here we performed an excellent crew that performed nice on the finish. Hopefully that permits us to rebound slightly bit and get centered on the match.”
