US men clinch the quarterfinal berth at the 2012 London Olympics – Volleyball News
US men’s national volleyball team worked out an amazing win over Brazil in a four-set affair on Thursday and qualified for the quarterfinals of the 2012 Olympic men’s volleyball tournament.
American hotshots gave out an up to mark performance and claimed 3-1 (23-25, 27-25, 25-19, 25-17) victory at the Earls Court. Around 11,500 spectators watched the cracking action of volleyball between two top teams of the world. US team maintained its dominance
on the centre court and remained without any loss at the end of third match. However, Brazil received first defeat and shifted to 2-1 in Pool B of the Olympic tournament.
US skipper Clayton Stanley did justice to his role and contributed match-high 19 points. He was credited for 16 spikes and three serve aces. Reid Priddy and Matthew Anderson followed the footsteps of team-captain and ended with 17 and 14 respectively.
Three Brazilian players also went into double digits, but their efforts went futile as USA marched away with victory.
Opening set of the match featured extreme action on the net as both teams jumped on every little opportunity to score points. Stanley helped USA to take an early lead, while Leandro struggled for Brazil. The ball kept rolling in the air and the two sides
exchanged long rallies. First set quickly inched its way to the end but the situation remained undecided. Eventually, Brazil hit the mark and closed the opening stanza with two-point advantage.
USA dropped the opening set with small margin of two points, but managed to edge out the rivals in the following three sets. Brazil claimed only one frame in the four-set match and suffered the loss.
"We hung in there. We were tight in the beginning and tried to do too much defense. They are a great team, we are really glad to beat one of the world-class teams. There are six teams that can do well in the rest of the tournament, so we need to work hard.
We improved from the last match, which was important. We don’t just need to win, we need to improve," said William Priddy after the match.
Despite loss in a crucial match, Dante Amaral of Brazil said: “Our goal is to qualify for the quarterfinal. From then it is a completely different story.”
Next up, USA is scheduled to take on Russia. The match between the archrivals is likely to be tough . On the other hand, Brazil will go against Serbia. Check back for more news and updates.
Tags: