Mohammed Ali used to "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”  With an array of vicious jump floats and a couple of deep floaters, Brazil destroyed the USA serve reception and beat the USA in four, 27-25, 25-19, 25-27, 25-19.  Down 15-21 in the 1st set, Brazil scored 12 of the next 16 points with floaters and solid defense to win 27-25.  With the worst passing match of the tournament, setter Micah Christensen was forced to go to the pins where Brazil's high-ball defense waited. Pretty much the same thing happened in the second.  We made a match of it leading all the way in the 3rd.  But again the fourth was determined by a lack of middle attack. 

Maurice Torres had another fine match and led our team in kills. Other starters in the 9th-place match were Taylor Sander, Jeremy Dejno, Dylan Davis, Spencer Rowe and Taylor Crabb. Nick Gibson, Tanner Clayton, Connor Olbright and Josh Taylor all saw action.

With the advent of the jump serve over the past two decades and the number of misses skyrocketing as well, it spoke very highly for the "old float serve.”  It is a very, very good weapon and even Brazil’s players, who can sport hard spinners with their lightning quick arms, used it to perfection. Spin serves unless exceptionally hard are predictable. Hard spin serves in many cases are low percentage with many misses.  Float serves, when hit hard (from deep), come quickly are hard to predict and pass.  Craig Buck made a living from "toeing the line" in the eighties and serving a low-trajectory floater.  Although we lost, it was nice to see a team not relying on bombing the jump spin serves.

So the U.S. Boys’ Youth National Team ends the tournament in 10th place. Four weeks ago they met in Florida for tryouts. Over the next month they became a team and played some excellent teams and got better and better. For the tournament we were 5-3. Two of the teams in our pool are in the finals tomorrow. Yes, Russia lost to Serbia and Iran beat Argentina. Check out FIVB.org for final results.

This will end my initial experience at blogging.  I have added a few pictures from the past couple days.  And I added one of this author so you can see what this old guy looks like. I have retired from collegiate coaching so being back in the gym with these talented young men has been a blast for me. Thanks for reading my thoughts and I hope I let you in on what an international trip entails and more than just the matches.

If you are ever in Santa Barbara, look me up.

Yours Truly,

KP

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