U.S. sweeps China in a first round match of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup
The United States men’s national volleyball team had a match with the Chinese on the November 20th. They beat the Chinese in the opening round of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup campaign currently taking place in Kagoshima, Japan.
The United States squad has a strong line up and they brought the title of the 2008 Olympic champions with them onto the courts while fighting off the Chinese. The Chinese could not hold the Americans effectively as a result of which the Americans were able
to make a clean sweep over their opponents.
The first set of the match saw the Chinese take time getting into form while the Americans came out strong from the start and were able to win the opening set of the game by quite a margin. The loss of the first set got the Chinese to rally together and
step up their game in the second set as a result of which the frame saw both the teams stay neck to neck with each other till the very end when the Americans were able to push themselves forwards towards another win. The momentum generated from winning the
previous set got the Americans going in the third set as well. Despite the commendable effort that the Chinese put in, the U.S. was able to seal the deal at the following final set scores: 25-14, 25-23 and 25-21.
The coach of the American team, Alan Knipe, expressed himself in the following manner when the match reached its close: “First of all I’d like to say we’re happy to start with three points. That’s very important in this tournament. I thought our winning
the first set was due largely to Matt Anderson’s serving and I thought we played well around that run.”
On the other hand, the coach of the Chinese team, Zhou Jianan, shared his views in the following way: “Because this is the beginning of the World Cup we thought this was an important match. We trained well for this."
The player that registered the most points in the entire match from among both the teams was Stanley Clayton of America who put up a total of 17 points in all. Clayton was helped by his teammate William 'Reid' Priddy as well as Matthew Anderson, both of
whom were able to keep the pressure on the Chinese by posting 14 points. On the Chinese side, the most active player was Bian Hongmin with 10 points.
The American win was a result of a well coordinated effort between both the attack as well as the defence of the U.S. side.
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