U.S. Men Begin World Championship Run in Poland

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 25, 2022) – The U.S. Men’s National Team opens the FIVB World Championship on Friday (Aug. 26) with a match against its NORCECA partner Mexico in Katowice, Poland.

Matches are being livestreamed on VolleyballWorld.tv.

Fourteen players are on the roster for the World Championship.

Setters: Micah Christenson and Josh Tuaniga
Opposites: Matt Anderson, Kyle Ensing and Kyle Russell
Outside hitters: T.J. DeFalco, Cody Kessel, Garrett Muagututia and Aaron Russell
Middle blockers: Taylor Averill, Jeff Jendryk and David Smith
Liberos: Erik Shoji and Mason Briggs

The U.S. Men are ranked No. 5 in the world after finishing second in Volleyball Nations League in July. They share Pool C with No. 1 Poland, No. 18 Mexico and No. 23 Bulgaria.

There are six pools of four teams. Only the top 16 teams after pool play advance.

The next two rounds, the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, are single elimination.

The U.S. Men took bronze at the last World Championship in 2018. It also took bronze in 1994 and won gold in 1986.

U.S. Men’s 14-Person Roster for the FIVB World Championship

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)
15 Kyle Russell (OPP, 6-9, Loomis, Calif., UC Irvine, Northern California)
16 Josh Tuaniga (S, 6-3, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State Univ., Southern California)
18 Garrett Muagututia (OH, 6-5, Oceanside, Calif., UCLA, Southern California)
19 Taylor Averill (MB, 6-7, San Jose, Calif., Hawaii, Northern California)
20 David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., Univ. of California Irvine, Southern California)
21 Mason Briggs (L, 6-0, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State Univ., Southern California)
22 Erik Shoji (L, 6-0, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford Univ., Hawaii)
23 Cody Kessel (OH, 6-5, Colorado Springs, Colo., Princeton Univ., Rocky Mountain)

Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coaches: Matthew Fuerbringer, Mike Wall, Javier Weber
Performance Analyst and Team Manager: Nate Ngo
Athletic Trainer: Aaron Brock
Consultant Coach: Mike Wall
Consultant Coach: Morteza Shiari
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Tim Pelot
Doctor: Daniel Green