U.S defeats Puerto Rico by 3-2: FIVB World League – Volleyball news
The U.S. men’s volleyball beat Puerto Rico on Friday, July 1, in a Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) World League that is being held for the 22nd time at Walter Pyramid. The match went on for five long and grueling sets by the end
of which the U.S squad found itself victors with a score of 25-27, 25-22, 25-12, 25-27 and 15-8.
Despite playing against the odds of being on the home court of the fifth ranked U.S team, the 16th ranked Puerto Rican side showed a lot of courage by taking on the first set of the match after a long and hard struggle. However, the U.S. team
bounced back by bagging the next two sets of the game but the Puerto Ricans were able to bring the match to a fifth set by scrapping together a fourth set win.
Alan Knipe, the coach of the U.S. squad, did not feel that his team performed up to the mark and after the match stated, "We have a lot of respect for them (Puerto Rico). I thought we made some errors and it wasn't necessarily the match we wanted to play
but it would be disrespectful to Puerto Rico to say we overlooked them."
The first set of the match started off with a Puerto Rican lead as the U.S. squad seemed to take some time to come into form. However, the Puerto Ricans were able to extend their advantage and kept the lead with themselves till the final stages of the first
set of the game. The U.S team was eventually able to make the match reach a tie at 21-21 but they could not push past that as the Puerto Ricans sealed the deal on the opening set at 27-25.
However, the Puerto Ricans were only able to win the fourth set later on as the U.S stepped up their game to earn a victory.
The victory has taken the U.S. squad to the Final Round of the championship that is scheduled to be played in Poland next week. If the U.S. team succeeds in winning the champion’s title, it would clinch the honour for the second time in their history. They
have a good chance of making it all the way as they were able to previously upset Brazil, which is the number one ranked team in the world. The US will not only be looking at taking home the title but will also be in line to receive the $1 million in prize
money for the top team in the championship.
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