Us Men Team Wins Even With Power Failure

The U.S. Men's National volleyball team returns home with a 3-1 record and is preparing to meet China, June 26^th through the 27^th in San Jose, California. They beat Italy on Sunday 3-1 with the sets being 25-19, 18-25, 25-22 and 25-20. This makes Italy's record 1-3 as they travel to the Netherlands for their match next weekend. Evan Patak, who will return to his home state of California this week, was definitely the MVP for the men's this game, with a total of 21 points on 18 kills. He also had three aces and a block. Sean Rooney had 20 points on seventeen kills and three blocks while Matt Anderson scored 12 points on eleven kills. He also had one ace.

U.S. Head Coach Alan Knipe started Anderson and Rooney at outside hitter position, then put Lee and Hein at middle blocker. Patak started at opposite and Suxo started at setter. Lmabourne was at libero, while Russel Holmes, Kevin Hansen, Scott Touzinsky, Brooks Billings and David Smith all alternated as subs. The U.S. Men's team were leading the game 6-4 in the first set when the lights went out at Palacatania. The match was delayed for about 20 minutes, but to their credit the U.S. Team didn't lose any momentum. They got right back in the game immediately.

The U.S. Team led 6-4 in the first set at the first TTO, and then 16-13 in the second technical time-out. Italy scored a couple of points on U.S. Errors but the U.S. Ended up walking away from the first set with 25-19. Italy seemed to step up their defense when the second set began, and they were able to take that set 25-18, making the score a pair of ones. There was two more TTOs in the third set, and it was close when the second was called, but the U.S team ended up winning that set 25-22. They took the last set as well to make it an 3-1 win.