Volleyball…Beijing 2008

1. USA

2. Puerto Rico

3. Cuba

USA beat Puerto Rico in 3 (25-20,25-19,25-20)

Cuba beat Canada in 4 (25-23, 25-23, 24-26, 25-23)

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, January 11, 2008.- USA won a ticket to the Beijing Olympic Games with a clear victory over Puerto Rico in the final match of the NORCECA Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The American blocking (13-5) proved to be too much for the host Puerto Ricans. The score was 25-20, 25-19, 25-20.

You can catch the important match between USA and Puerto Rico here at Media Sports Live.

USA Volleyball has an update and a small match report from the boys win against Dominican Republic

The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team defeated the Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-19) on Sunday in its first pool-play match of the 2008 NORCECA Men’s Continental Olympic Qualification Championship in Caguas, Puerto Rico.The winner of the tournament qualifies for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The U.S. Men will face Barbados in a second pool-play match on Monday followed by host Puerto Rico on Tuesday.

The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team defeated the Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-19) in the NORCECA Olympic Qualification Tournament

The USA men are spending their Christmas in sunny California in preparation for their next qualification tournament. Full article from USA Volleyball.

The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team will be spending the winter holidays in sunny Southern California as it prepares for the 2008 NORCECA Men’s Continental Olympic Qualification Championship, to be played Jan. 6-11 in Caguas, Puerto Rico. Players are being called back to the U.S. Men’s headquarters at the American Sports Center in Anaheim on Dec. 23. It is not known how many players from the 19-man roster will be returning. Most of the U.S. players from the 12-man World Cup team went straight from Japan to their international club teams.

Read full entry here…

In the first match of the final round, Argentina lost to Brazil 0-3. Argentina’s best player Marcos Milinkovic entered the match only as part of a double sub in game three. Milinkovic started every match except today. It is good for Argentina if Brazil gets into the Olympics at this tournament…. basically, Argentina would only have to beat Venezuela in their zone to qualify! In the second match, a victory by 8-0 Russia over 6-2 Bulgaria would have secured a top three finish. Bulgaria led by the very talented Matey Kaziyski, played with great confidence and defeated the Russians in five. The Russians have some good young talent, some great experienced talent and one of the finest outside hitters — Sergey Tetyukhin — in our sport. Sergey’s coach pulled him at a critical point in the match and never played him again. They could have used him in game 5 and we could have used him in game 5! Without going into the details, the win by Bulgaria makes the road a lot tougher for the USA.

Check this article out from USA Volleyball.

Gabe Gardner helped the U.S. Men’s National Team come back from a first-set scare as Team USA defeated Tunisia, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-17 on Sunday before 3,000 spectators at the FIVB World Cup in Okayama, Japan.The victory improves the United States’ World Cup record to 4-2. Tunisia, ranked 15th in the world, falls to 1-5. The U.S. Men, ranked fifth, will play No. 19 Korea (1-4) on Monday at 1:05 p.m. local time (8 p.m. Sunday, PST).

The top three World Cup finishers will qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Here is a video a fan has made of Logan Tom at the World Cup.

Here is an article from the journalgazzette.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – As he was preparing to celebrate last Christmas with his family, Lloyd Ball received a unique present.

Hugh McCutcheon, the coach of the United States’ men’s volleyball team, phoned Ball to ask him to rejoin the squad after a two-year hiatus to help it get to the Olympics.

“When you want to win the Olympics,” McCutcheon said, “then you want to get the best players possible in the gym.”

Was the former IPFW All-American interested?

Check it out here

Well, we have come to the end of the road of World Cup 2008. Though we didn’t rob Italy of an 11-0 sweep, GREAT JOB ITALY, we did reach our primary objective which was to qualify for Beijing. Wheeeew! At least that is behind us. We had some opportunities to close the third set but in the end too many errors committed. Italy played a very clean match.