COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 7, 2018) – The U.S. Men’s National Team is in Ottawa, Canada for Week 5 of FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL).
After two weekends of play, the U.S. Men are in third place at 5-1 behind first-Poland (5-1) and Brazil (5-1).
In Ottawa, they will face Germany (2-4), which handed Poland its first loss last weekend, Australia (1-5) and Canada (4-2). The FIVB has chosen FloVolleyball.tv to live stream the matches in the United States. It is a subscription service.
The United State is coming off a five-set loss to Brazil that saw it give up a 2-0 set lead and three match points in the fifth set. While the U.S. Men came away disappointed, they were not discouraged.
“Overall, in the end it was even and I am proud of my team and the way we fought all the way,” outside hitter Aaron Russell said.
The U.S. Men will keep the same players they had in Brazil. Opposite Ben Patch, who had played both VNL weekends for the U.S., leads the team in VNL scoring with 73 points on 62 kills and seven blocks. He is 13th overall. He is fourth in kills among all VNL players with a 55.36 success percentage.
Setter Micah Christenson, who joined the team for its second weekend in Brazil, is in fifth among all VNL players with 148 running sets and zero faults on 188 attempts and an average of 5.92 per set. Christenson is in fourth place in digs with an average of .72 per set.
Opposite Simon Hirsch is leading Germany in scoring. Opposite Lincoln Alexander Williams is leading Australia.
Outside hitter Stephen Marr leads Canada. This is the first weekend that Canadian opposite Gavin Schmitt has been on Canada’s roster since the 2016 Olympic Games. He retired in 2016 due to injury, but left the door open on the possibility of returning to the national team.
2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League
U.S. Men’s 14-Man Travel Roster for Canada
1. Matt Anderson (Opp, 6-9, West Seneca, N.Y., Penn State)
2. Aaron Russell (OH, 6-9, Ellicott City, Md., Penn State)
4. Jeff Jendryk (MB, 6-10, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola of Chicago)
7. Kawika Shoji (S, 6-3, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford)
10. Dan McDonnell (MB, 6-6, Phoenix, Ariz., UC Irvine)
8. T.J. DeFalco (OH, 6-5, Huntington Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
11. Micah Christenson (S, 6-6, Honolulu, Hawaii, Southern California)
12. Max Holt (MB, 6-10, Cincinnati, Ohio, Penn State)
13. Ben Patch (Opp, 6-8, Provo, Utah, BYU)
17. Thomas Jaeschke (OH, 6-6, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola)
18. Jake Langlois (OH, 6-10, San Jose, Calif., BYU)
20C. David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., UC Irvine)
21. Dustin Watten (L, 6-0, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
22. Erik Shoji (L, 6-0, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford)
Head Coach: John Speraw
Team Manager: Andrea Becker
Assistant Coaches: Rob Neilson and Brian Thornton
Technical Coordinator: Nate Ngo
Athletic Trainer: Aaron Brock
Psychologist: Andrea Becker
Team Doctor: Andrew Gregory
Consultant Coach: Greg Walker
Schedule and Results (all times PT)
At Ningbo, China
May 25: USA def Argentina, 25-27, 24-26, 26-24, 25-21, 15-10
May 26: USA def Bulgaria vs USA, 25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 25-20
May 27: USA def China, 25-20, 26-24, 25-18
At Goiânia, Brazil
June 1: USA def Japan, 23-25, 13-25, 25-18, 25-20, 15-10
June 2: USA def Korea, 25-23, 25-21, 25-11
June 3: Brazil def USA, 21-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 20-18
At Ottawa, Canada
June 8 at 1:40 p.m.: Germany vs USA
June 9 at 1:10 p.m.: USA vs Australia
June 10 at 1:10 p.m.: Canada vs USA
At Hoffman Estates, Ill., USA
June 15 at 5:30 p.m.: USA vs. Serbia
June 16 at 5:30 p.m.: USA vs. Poland
June 17 at 2:30 p.m.: USA vs. Iran
At Modena, Italy
June 22 at 8:30 a.m.: USA vs France
June 23 at 8:30 a.m.: USA vs Russia
June 24 at 11:30 a.m.: Italy vs USA
Final Round (must qualify): July 1-4 in Lille, France