2024 Olympic Men's Team to Debut at VNL in Ottawa

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 3, 2024) – The U.S. Olympic Men’s Volleyball Team for Paris 2024 will make its competitive debut at the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) preliminary round matches on June 4-8 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

The U.S. Men finished the first round of VNL at 1-3 with a less-experienced group of athletes. They are ranked No. 3 in the world and have won the silver medal at the last two VNLs (2022 and 2023).

The U.S. setters in Ottawa are Micah Christenson and Micah Ma’a. The liberos are Kyle Dagostino and Erik Shoji.

The outside hitters are T.J. DeFalco, Thomas Jaeschke, Garrett Muagututia and Aaron Russell. The opposites are Matt Anderson and Kyle Ensing. The middle blockers are Taylor Averill, Max Holt, Jeff Jendryk and David Smith.

Only 12 players are allowed on the Olympic roster. Ensing is the official alternate athlete for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Men’s Team and Dagostino is not on the roster.

The U.S. Men’s head coach is John Speraw, who was named head coach in 2013 and helped the team to the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Speraw’s top assistants are former indoor and beach player Matt Fuerbringer, who has coached college and club teams, and Javier Weber, a three-time Olympian for Argentina who also coached the national team and continues to coach for professional club teams. Olympian Erik Sullivan, who coaches with the Texas women’s volleyball team, will also assist Speraw in Ottawa.

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 vs Argentina
June 6 at 1:30 p.m. USA vs Italy
June 7 at 5 p.m. USA vs Serbia
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