Home Sweet Home: U.S. Men in Anaheim for VNL Week 3

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 3, 2023) – With apologies to Thomas Wolfe, you CAN go home again… it just might take seven years.

For the first time since 2016, the U.S. Men’s National Team will compete near its training center in Southern California when it plays its final four Volleyball Nations League (VNL) preliminary matches on July 5-9 in Anaheim.

Tickets for all matches are still available. Get them now at volleyballworld.com.

The U.S. Men go into the Anaheim matches in second place in VNL at 7-1 (first-place Japan is 8-0) and ranked second in the world behind Poland.

The U.S. Men will play world No. 12 Cuba (2-6), No. 7 Argentina (5-3), No. 5 France (3-5), the reigning Olympic champion, and No. 25 Bulgaria (1-7).

The only U.S. player on the roster for Anaheim who has not been on a roster already is opposite Kyle Russell. Opposites Matt Anderson and Kyle Ensing are returning to the roster.

The outside hitters are T.J. DeFalco, Thomas Jaeschke, Garrett Muagututia and Aaron Russell.

The middle blockers are Taylor Averill, Jeff Jendryk, Max Holt and David Smith.

The setters are Micah Christenson and Micah Ma’a and the libero is Erik Shoji.

Kyle Russell, Ensing, DeFalco, Muagututia, Smith, Christenson and Ma’a all played college volleyball in Southern California. All but Christenson also grew up in Southern California.

Volleyball Nations League is the world’s premier annual international indoor volleyball tournament. The top 16 teams in the world play four matches a week for three weeks of preliminary competition. The top eight teams at the end of the preliminaries will go to the Final Round on July 19-23 in Gdansk, Poland.

U.S. Men’s Roster for Preliminary Week 3
2023 Volleyball Nations League

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)
11 Micah Christenson (S, 6-5, Honolulu, Hawaii, Univ. of Southern California, Hawaii)
12 Max Holt (MB, 6-10, Cincinnati, Ohio, Penn State, Ohio Valley)
14 Micah Ma’a (S, 6-3, Kaneohe, Hawaii, UCLA, Aloha)
15 Kyle Russell (OPP, 6-9, Loomis, Calif., UC Irvine, Northern California)
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., Hawaii)

Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coaches: Matt Fuerbringer, Javier Weber
Second Assistant Coaches: Morteza Shiari, Mike Wall
Performance Analyst and Technical Coordinator: Nate Ngo
Athletic Trainer: Aaron Brock
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Tim Pelot
Team Manager: David Dantes
Sports Psychologist: Andrea Becker
Team Doctors: Chris Koutures, Christopher Lee, James Suchy, Eugene Yim

U.S. Men’s Schedule for the 2023 VNL
All matches will be broadcast on volleyballworld.tv

Week 1 in Ottawa, Canada
June 7 USA def Netherlands 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-21)
June 8 USA def Italy 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-19)
June 10 USA def Canada 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-20)
June 11 Brazil def USA 3-1 (19-25, 25-21, 15-25, 21-25)

Week 2 in Rotterdam, Netherlands
June 20 USA def Serbia 3-1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-21)
June 21 USA def China 3-0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-18)
June 23 USA def Iran 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-23)
June 24 USA def Poland 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-19)

Week 3 in Anaheim, California, USA
July 5 at 8:30 p.m. USA vs Cuba
July 7 at 8:30 p.m. USA vs Argentina
July 8 at 8:30 p.m. USA vs France
July 9 at 8:30 p.m. USA vs Bulgaria

Final Round on July 19-23 in Gdansk, Poland.