Today was a different day from the beginning. No rush to get to the gym for a match. Breakfast was much later than for the first six matches. And then a sprained ankle to our libero Evan Mottram in a morning practice. Injuries happen and none of them are good; but when they happen to your libero who is the main ingredient in your reception of serve it is bad. Evan is also a team captain and one of this team’s energy drivers. Also, when injuries happen others have to step up.

And step up they did. Taylor Crabb filled in for Evan and did an outstanding job passing and digging. And although we lost one mo in Evan, we gained another "Mo" with Maurice Torres who got the starting nod. Mo responded with an outstanding performance and led USA to a 25-22, 18, 17 win over Poland. The win puts us into the 9th-place match against Brazil tomorrow at 6PM. Maurice tallied 15 kills at a .390 clip and brought some high- level octane to the offense and "motivation" as well. Micah Christensen also got the nod at setter and performed exceptionally well with well-placed sets. Spencer Rowe had 8 kills with an outstanding .67 percentage. Taylor Sander had 10 kills and Nate Gibson came off the bench and had 3 kills in four swings. USA passed very well and dug 30 balls - all in all a great win to get another shot at a very good Brazil team that defeated France, 3-1.

Our team has developed kind of a strange warm up compared to the stoic pregame routines of our opponents. The first thing they do is jog around the building singing, "Everywhere we go-o people want to know-o, who we are, so we tell, them. We are the US mighty, mighty US" ala Remember the Titans. Then they come down to the floor and, not being allowed to touch the ball until 30 minutes prior to match time, they play a game of "tag". They have different variations that they play; sometimes being safe if they dive through someone’s legs. Today they were playing some other variation with their fingers on their noses. Obviously they are not too stressed out about their upcoming task. It is a joy to watch.

Speaking of libero (as we were above with Taylor playing for Evan); how do you say it? It is an Italian word for free, which is used because the libero gets free substitutions. Most of you probably say it with a Spanish accent or li-BER-o. I have actually always said LEE- bero, which is the pronunciation here in Italy. So there are two ways to say it: li-BER-o and/or LEE- ber- o.  "You say to-MAY-to, I say to-MAH-to.”

Russia, Serbia, Iran and Argentina are in the top four back in Jesolo. They took the day off and begin the semis tomorrow. 

Well, one more match to play and it comes down to USA versus Brazil. Doesn't seem right that it will be for 9th place, but it is what it is. We are committed to winning.

Talk to you tomorrow,

KP