The US men’s volleyball team beat Russia in a five-set semi-final yesterday, assuring the US their first Olympic volleyball medal since 1992.
They will play for the title tomorrow against the winner of the Brazil-Italy semi-final. Russia plays the loser for the bronze.
“I came alive,” said David Lee, who accounted for the final four of his team’s points. “All match long I didn’t think I played my best volleyball. I got it going in the end.”
The US won 25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13 and remained undefeated in Beijing despite playing without their coach for three matches.
“David Lee just came up with some huge blocks — MVP right there,” US player Reid Priddy said. “That was huge, huge for us.”
This marks the first time since the 1984 Los Angeles Games that both the US men and women will play for the volleyball gold. The women face Brazil for the title today.
The men won gold in 1984 and 1988 before winning the bronze in Barcelona. The closest they’ve come since was fourth in Athens in 2004.
“We’ve got so much motivation, we’ve got motivation coming out of our ears,” said setter Lloy Ball, who is playing in his fourth Olympics.
Russia was the bronze medalist in Athens and the silver medalist in 2000. The team won gold in 1964, 1968 and 1980. In Beijing, the Russians went 4-1 in preliminary pool play.
In a tight first set, the US went up 17-16 on Stanley Clayton’s ace, then added another point on Sergey Grankin’s errant spike. The US won it when Maxim Mikhaylov’s spike went long.
Russia took a 16-13 lead in the second after Alexander Kosarev’s block. But the US made three straight points in the end to take the set. Priddy scored with a pair of successful spikes, before Yury Berezkho’s spike went into the net to give the US the set.
Alexey Kuleshov’s block put Russia ahead 17-13 in the third set.
The Russians extended the lead to 20-15, but the US rallied again to even it at 24 before Russia won on Alexander Volkov’s block.
That led to a tense fourth set. Russia was up 19-16 and went on to win it on Sergey Tetyukhin’s spike, sending the pro-Russian crowd on its feet.
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