The USA Men's National Volleyball Team today suffered a serious setback to
their hopes of advancing to the 2001 FIVB World League Final Round. The
team dropped a four-set decision (23-25, 18-25, 25-21, 19-25) to the
Netherlands against a rainy backdrop in Amsterdam.
Team USA came out strong in game one, tallying a 12-7 lead, but let the
Netherlands rally back to tie the match at 16. The Dutch team never looked
back while dispatching the American team in under an hour and a half.
Team captain Tom Hoff (Park Ridge, Ill./Long Beach St.) was limited to just
four kills on eight attempts.
"It was very disappointing because we had practiced so well since arriving
here," said Hoff. "We just could not get into the rhythm of the game. We
had our chances but could not capitalize."
Team USA traveled with just three veteran players. Veteran outside hitter
Kevin Barnett did not travel with the team due to uncertainty of
circumstances following his father's death. Travel rosters are typically
set three weeks prior to the event.
"We were too inconsistent and made too many mistakes tonight," said head
coach Doug Beal. "This is the sign of an inexperienced team and we clearly
are inexperienced. We lost much of the match on the serving and receiving
game. We made too many serving mistakes and did not receive the serves very
well."
The loss puts the U.S. team in a must win situation on Sunday when they
conclude the series with the Netherlands. A loss will officially eliminate
them from the finals. Even a U.S. win will not guarantee qualification.
However, the Dutch lost one of their top players in the fourth set. Guido
Gortzen suffered what appeared to be a serious hand injury when he collided
with a teammate.
"We are concerned with the injury sustained by Gortzen," added Beal. "He is
one of the all-time great players in the world. He appears to have broken
his thumb and we all hope that it is not a career ending injury."
Reid Priddy (Los Angeles, Calif./Loyola Marymount) led Team USA with 12
kills, followed by Clayton Stanley's (Honolulu, Hawaii/Univ. of Hawaii) 11
kills. The Netherlands' Richard Schuil continued his dominance of the U.S.
with a match-high 17 kills and three blocks.
USA Travel To Amsterdam To Face The Netherlands In Final Weekend Of
Preliminary Pool Play Of World League 2001 With Chance To Qualify For
Finals
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – The USA Men’s National Volleyball
Team will travel to Amsterdam for the final weekend of preliminary pool
play of World League 2001. They will face The Netherlands on Friday,
June 15 and Sunday, June 17 with a possible trip to the final round of
the World League on the line.
“Holland rested a couple of their starters last weekend and
didn’t take them down to Brazil,” said Doug Beal, USA Men’s National
Volleyball Team Head Coach. “We have the opportunity to qualify I think
if we win both matches. It might still come down to games and how Poland
does. We have to win if we can 3-0, 3-1 and it is always tough to play
to win at a certain set score, but I think we have a chance to do that.
We have to play quite a bit better. We’re not going to have Kevin
Barnett and that is certainly going to hurt us. I thought that Barnett
had probably his best match last Sunday. So we’re not going to be as
experienced or as deep in a couple of positions, but we certainly can
beat them. If we can steady out a little bit and run our offense at
least as well as we did last Sunday then I like our chances.”
Team USA (6-4) enters the weekend ranked secon in Pool D behind
Brazil (9-1). The Netherlands (5-5) sits is third place while Germany (0-
10) is bringing up the rear. The top two ranked teams of each pool
following the preliminary pool play will advance to the final round in
Katowice, Poland, June 25-30. The exception to this is that if Poland,
which is automatically qualified for the final round by virtue of being
the host country, does not finish in the top two in their preliminary
pool then the lowest rated number two team from the other preliminary
pools will not advance to the finals. The qualifying formula for the
final round of World League 2001 is explained below.
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