ARLINGTON, Texas — USA coach Karch Kiraly looked at his watch. It was a few minutes before 10 p.m. Saturday and he quickly did the math. His team had to be back on the court and ready for first serve in 16 hours.
It will be against Poland in the Volleyball Nations League bronze-medal match, a 2 p.m. Sunday start for two teams that need to bounce back in a hurry.
“Dinner, bed,” USA setter Micha Hancock said. “And getting a lot of electrolytes.”
Top-seeded Poland got swept by fourth-seeded China before the USA fell behind two sets to none and then staged a furious rally that came up short 25-21, 25-14, 26-24, 27-25.
“When you have a match like that it’s kind of a race to the finish,” Kiraly said. “You only have three sets to try to find some answers and we were happy to get to an answer that extended it to a fourth. We want to be problem solvers and we’ve got to be searching for answers and changes and things like that and we got ourselves in a position.”
Saturday night, the big answer was outside hitter Ali Frantti, who subbed for Kelsey Robinson Cook at the start of the third set. Frantti had eight kills with one error in 19 attacks, made an immediate impact that included some spectacular digs and continued the USA’s trend of playing anyone anytime and getting strong production.
“You just have to be ready for anything. That’s just my mindset,” Frantti said. “We have a great team and we have great talent and anyone can play at any time. For me I was just trying to stay focused and when they needed me I wanted to be ready.
“I like to be an energy person and bring a little fire. When that happens, I feel like it’s a chain reaction and people can play with their chests out and I just wanted to be a difference maker.”
They almost pulled it off after playing the first set on their heels and getting blasted in the second.
“We played a very good match,” Türkiye coach Daniele Santarelli said. “The first set, we began with some mistakes, particularly on blocks, and we were not so aggressive, but the second set we played an amazing set. The third set was incredible. We were ahead 24-22 and we had three opportunities to win the set against one of the best teams in the world … I’m proud of my team, but this is only the semifinals, it’s not the final.”
In the third set, Ebrar Karakut hit long to make…
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