The Volleyball Nations League men’s semifinals are set and, not surprisingly, the final four teams are the teams with the best records.
On Saturday in Gdansk, Poland, Japan (11-2) plays Poland (11-2) at 11 a.m. Eastern and the USA (11-2) plays Italy (10-3) at 2 p.m.
“I’m excited about playing Italy,” USA coach John Speraw said. “They’re defending world champions, playing great volleyball, and it will be the first time since 2017 that we will be playing their full team with all their starting players.
“We played them in some friendlies last year before World Championships but they didn’t have (Alessandro) Michieletto, who is obviously one of the world’s best outside hitters. Playing a team like this, there’s a different style than what we’ve seen from France or Argentina or some of our more difficult competitors we’ve seen lately, but an exceptional team. So I’m just excited about playing a great team.”
When they met earlier in VNL, the USA came away with a 25-18, 25-18, 25-19 sweep on June 8 in Ottawa, Canada. As we wrote in our recap that day:
TJ DeFalco led a balanced attack that saw five Americans with five or more kills. DeFalco had nine kills, two blocks and four aces and had six digs. Max Holt had seven kills, two blocks and an ace.
Garrett Muagututia had seven kills and two aces, Averill Taylor had five kills, two blocks and an an ace, and Matt Anderson had six kills, six digs and an ace.
Setter Micah Christenson, who also had a kill and a block, had the other ace as the USA held a 10-4 advantage in aces and outblocked Italy 7-1.
That was a long time ago, of course, and Italy has basically a completely different look. And the USA’s Matt Anderson, for one, did not play in that match, and right now the 36-year-old opposite is hitting on all cylinders. In the USA’s 25-21, 25-18, 17-25, 24-26, 15-9 quarterfinal victory over France on Wednesday, Anderson had 20 kills and two aces to go with seven digs
“Matt Anderson at 36 is a testament to his professionalism, which I frequently mention,” Speraw said. “He just does such a great job of taking care of his body and lifting and making sure he’s doing the right things for himself. And his work ethic and he’s always been that way. His commitment to professionalism over the last 10 years or more has really allowed him to play at a really high level.
“He’s still a critical part of how we win volleyball matches.”
Against France,…
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