What a battle! The final score: USA 114-Spain 110 (total points)

Spain played a wonderful match tonight. They had more blocks, digs and kills, but USA had a bit more grit to outlast the Spaniards in five. We were not smooth tonight. We really struggled connecting in the middle, but we put a lot of pressure on Spain and had a few less unforced errors, which turned out to be the difference.

Spain had more spectacular digs than any team I've seen in an international junior match. Getting dug after you absolutely bomb can be unnerving. Team USA, however, kept swinging high and hard and let the staff make a few adjustments until history was made! For the first time in USAV history, we have a U-21 men's team advancing to the medal round! Great job by the entire team and staff.

Coach Hawks made numerous subs tonight, which will make the team even more confident going into our last three matches. Maurice Torres entered in set two and finished with the hot hand and 22 points. Taylor Sander led all scorers with 27 points and, more importantly, never got flustered when the Spaniards made absolute impossible digs with every body part. Taylor and crew just kept up their solid transition game and wore Spain down with some great determination.

Tomorrow we play Russia who is also undefeated in our pool.  Russia probably has the advantage since they have won 15 sets and only lost one this week! This match will be a great opportunity to get a feel for the pace and style of the Russians. I really doubt that the Russian coach will want to rest his guys to prepare for the medal round! The Russians are very big, athletic and believe it or not, all jump float! Traditionally, Russia has always bombed their jump spin serve at 100 KPH and blocked your out of system attack. Now, they dissect you with precise floaters and block your out of system attack! Russia is running the fastest offense in the tournament so it will be a great challenge and pre-test before the semi-finals.

So, if our boys don't get stuck in an elevator during a blackout like yesterday, we will all show up to our last pool play match tomorrow vs. Tourney favorite, Russia.

We wear Blue tomorrow!

Three more to go!

Shawn Patchell
USA Volleyball
JNT Head of Delegation