Indoor and Olympic Success

The United States has had very good success within these Olympics. Some of the success was expected, especially when you look at beach volleyball. Misty May and Kerri Walsh were expected to defend their Olympic gold title, given that they were ranked number one in the world and have not lost for so long. The number one men's volleyball team of Dallhauser/Rogers won gold, matching the team of May and Walsh.

What was not expected was the strength of the Americans and indoor volleyball. The women's Olympic indoor volleyball team defeated the Cubans in a three set sweep and moved on to the gold-medal game. This ensured the Americans they would have the best Olympic tournament finish since 1984. The women have played a particularly strong tournament considering their overall record of 6-1. The lone loss came at the hands of the Cuban team the US just beat. This explained why their recent win against Cuba was so satisfying. The US won rather handily in this game, finishing the three sets with the following scores: 25-20, 25-16, 25-17. The women had previously beaten China to set up the match against Cuba in the quarterfinals. That meant added drama due to the fact that the US is coached by one of the Chinese legends, Lang. To finish the tournament, the US lost to Brazil, which did not diminish the overall results.

The men's indoor volleyball team was up to the task as well. They had not finished with the medals since 1992 and are presently working to end that 16 year drought. The men were undefeated and had to charge back from a deficit to beat Serbia in five sets in a match which lasted a whopping two hours. The United States beat Russia and finally Brazil to win the gold medal.

From watching the United States play, it was very easy to see the kind of heart that they are playing with in every match. If you did not keep up with volleyball throughout the Olympics, the head coach left the team to be with his wife because her parents were both stabbed in Beijing. The father subsequently died and the mother’s condition stabilized and then upgraded to good condition. When unfortunate incidents happen like this, it often will inspire team to circle the wagons and push harder to reach a level of success it might not have expected before. This seems that it happened with the United States men’s team so far.

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