U.S. Men Dominate the Net in 3rd Win at 2024 VNL

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 7, 2024) –The U.S. Men’s National Team came back after dropping the first set to beat Serbia 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-14) at the preliminary round of Volleyball Nations League on Friday in Ottawa, Canada.

The U.S. Men (3-4) take on Canada (3-3) Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PT. Canada has already secured its ticket to the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Middle blocker Taylor Averill is looking forward to playing Canada in front of their home crowd.

MATCH STATISTICS

“This is what you live for,” Averill told Volleyball World. “Their home court, they’re a good team. We don’t have a lot of time to prepare, but we know this team. We’ve played against them many times. I’m excited, I hope we can show up.”

Averill led the team in blocks with five and added seven kills (.636 hitting percentage).

Outside hitter Thomas Jaeschke led all scorers with 19 points on 17 kills (.452) and two aces.

Opposite Matt Anderson and outside hitter TJ DeFalco each had 16 points. Anderson had 12 kills (.393) and four blocks. DeFalco had 14 kills (.500) and two aces.

Serbia did not play its best match, giving up 28 points on errors while the U.S. gave up 15.

The U.S. outblocked Serbia (11-6) and led in kills (55-52). Serbia edged out the U.S. on aces (5-4).

After running away with the second set, the U.S. Men found themselves down 11-6 to Serbia in the third. The U.S. Men fought their way back, finally tying it at 19-19 after Jaeschke made a diving save, which led to an emphatic bounce down the line by DeFalco. From there, the U.S. took the lead after an attack error from Serbia and never looked back. Momentum had fully shifted to the U.S. side as it stormed through Serbia in the fourth to take the match.

Libero Erik Shoji was credited with nine digs and seven successful receptions.

Setter Micah Christenson led the team to a .453 hitting percentage and added two points on one kill and one block.

Setter Micah Ma’a saw action as a serving substitute.

U.S. Men’s National Team Roster
for 2024 Volleyball Nations League – Week 2

No. Player (Position, Height, Hometown, College, USAV Region)
1 Matt Anderson (Opp, 6-10, West Seneca, N.Y., Penn State, Western Empire)
2 Aaron Russell (OH, 6-9, Ellicott City, Md., Penn State, Chesapeake)
4 Jeff Jendryk (MB, 6-10, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola Univ. Chicago, Great Lakes)
5 Kyle Ensing (Opp, 6-7, Valencia, Calif., Long Beach State Univ., Southern California)
8 T.J. DeFalco (OH, 6-5, Huntington Beach, Calif., Long Beach State Univ., Southern California)
10 Kyle Dagostino (L, 5-9, Tampa, Florida, Stanford Univ., Florida)
11 Micah Christenson (S, 6-5, Honolulu, Hawaii, Univ. of Southern California, Aloha)
12 Max Holt (MB, 6-10, Cincinnati, Ohio, Penn State, Ohio Valley)
14 Micah Ma’a (S, 6-3, Kaneohe, Hawaii, UCLA, Aloha)
17 Thomas Jaeschke (OH, 6-6, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola Univ. Chicago, Great Lakes)
18 Garrett Muagututia (OH, 6-5, Oceanside, Calif., UCLA, Southern California)
19 Taylor Averill (MB, 6-7, San Jose, Calif., Univ. of Hawaii, Northern California)
20 David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., Univ. of California Irvine, Southern California)
22 Erik Shoji (L, 6-0, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford Univ., Aloha)

Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coaches: Matt Fuerbringer
Second Assistants: Javier Weber and Erik Sullivan
Performance Analyst and Technical Coordinator: Nate Ngo
Athletic Trainer: Aaron Brock
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Tim Pelot
Team Manager: David Dantes
Sports Psychologists: Andrea Becker, Peter Naschak
Doctors: Andrew Gregory

U.S. Men’s Schedule for 2024 VNL
All times PDT
Matches will be shown live and on-demand on VolleyballWorld.tv

Week 1 in Antalya, Türkiye
May 22 at 10 a.m. Poland def. USA 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 26-24)
May 24 at 7 a.m. France def. USA 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21)
May 25 at 10 a.m. Bulgaria def. USA 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21)
May 26 at 7 a.m. USA def. Türkiye 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 27-25, 25-21)

Week 2 in Ottawa, Canada
June 4 at 1:30 p.m. USA def. Argentina 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 26-24)
June 6 at 1:30 p.m. Italy def. USA 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-20)
June 7 at 5 p.m. USA def. Serbia 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-14)
June 8 at 1:30 p.m. USA vs Canada

Week 3 in Manila Philippines
June 19 at 4 a.m. USA vs Iran
June 20 at 4 a.m. USA vs Brazil
June 21 at 8 p.m. USA vs Germany
June 23 at 4 a.m. USA vs Japan

Final Round on June 27-30 in Łódź, Poland