Credit: USA Volleyball
PARIS, FRANCE (8/11/2024) – The U.S. Men’s National Team earned its third bronze medal in Olympic history with a 3-0 (25-23, 30-28, 26-24) victory over reigning world champion Italy on Friday. The U.S. also earned the bronze in 2016 in Brazil and 1992 in Barcelona. The match marked the eighth time the two countries have met in the Olympics but the first time facing off for the bronze medal.
Setter Micah Christenson, playing in his third Olympic Games, played a brilliant match, distributing the ball among five U.S. hitters who registered at least six kills. The U.S. hit at a .354 efficiency percentage for the match with only four hitting errors over the final two sets and 10 hitting errors for the entire match. Libero Erik Shoji made multiple great defensive plays, leading all players with 12 digs, followed by Christenson with eight.
Facing the top blocking team among the semifinalists, the U.S. out-blocked Italy, 9-5. Middle blocker Max Holt (four blocks) and outside hitter Aaron Russell (three) were the top two blockers in the match with Christenson and Taylor Averill adding a block apiece. The U.S. middles also combined to hit .706 with 13 kills and only one error in 17 swings. Averill finished with seven kills in eight attacks, while Holt scored on six of nine attacks without an error. The middles also combined for seven digs, four from Holt and three from Averill.
Russell led the U.S. with 15 points on 11 kills and an ace with his three blocks, and led the team with eight successful receptions. Outside hitter T.J DeFalco led the team with 12 kills, including three set-winners, and totaled seven digs. Holt also reached double-digits, adding an ace to his six kills and four blocks. Opposite Matt Anderson recorded eight kills, six digs and five successful receptions.
“They’ve had an exceptional Olympic Games,” head coach John Speraw said about his team. “Not just any Olympic Games, but especially in context of their past experience, which only added to the pressure of this opportunity. They handled that with total poise. I think that says a lot about their expertise and experience and leadership, their maturity. To have the experience they had 48 hours ago, which was so devastating, because this team had ambitions and knew they were playing good enough volleyball to play the gold medal match. To have it go the way it did, it was just really, really hard. We’ll probably think about that match (vs. Poland) the rest of our lives. But to be able to win today and finish on a winning note, which is what this team deserves, and that they can feel the success together on the court one last time… I think it’s just a really big moment for me.”
Christenson talked about the difficulty of playing a bronze medal match.
“I think this is probably the hardest game to play in international ball,” he said. “This bronze medal match after 48 hours before you get gutted in the semifinal match; it’s something that we’ve experienced before unfortunately. It’s something that we triumphed out of both times. I think that says a lot about the character of this team, about the resilience we have both as individuals and as a collective unit.
Despite the sweep, the match was separated by a total of six points with the U.S. winning each set by two points. Italy led in kills (47-45) and service aces (5-2) but committed 25 errors while scoring 18 on opponent errors. The U.S. led 73-71 in digs and made six fewer serving errors than Italy.
US Women Win Silver
After another incredible Olympic run, the U.S. Women took home the silver medal after falling to Italy in the gold medal match, 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-17) on the final day of the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
The Tokyo gold medalists now lead the former Soviet Union for all-time medals 7-6 and have medaled at each of the past five Olympics. The gold medal was the first Olympic hardware for Italy, who captured the Volleyball Nations League title earlier this summer and dropped only one set in the tournament, winning its final 17 sets.
Chiaka Ogbogu was named Best Middle Blocker on the Paris 2024 Dream Team.
“We have so much that we’re proud of from this tournament,” U.S. Head Coach Karch Kiraly said. “But out of the three medalist teams, (silver) is the only one that finishes with a loss. There’s a bittersweet part to that.”
Ranked fifth in the world entering this year’s Olympics, the U.S. Women (4-2) ran off four consecutive victories to again reach the championship match after an opening 3-2 loss to China in pool play. They defeated the reigning world champions Serbia in pool play, fourth-ranked Poland in the quarterfinals, and world No. 1 Brazil in the semifinals. The silver medal is the fourth for the U.S., which finishes the Olympics ranked No. 3.
“For those of us who were in Tokyo, I think this was more what we envisioned a typical Olympic experience to be,” U.S. setter Jordyn Poulter said. “I think the city of Paris did a phenomenal job putting this on.
“We were able to come out playing our best volleyball throughout this tournament, which is where I hoped we would eventually get to at the end of this quad.”
Backup opposite Jordan Thompson led the U.S. in scoring with eight kills and outside hitter Avery Skinner added seven. Opposite Annie Drews scored six points on five kills and an ace, and outside Jordan Larson played as a substitute and finished with five kills and six digs. Thompson also totaled six digs, while setter Jordyn Poulter and Drews each added five.
Libero Justine Wong-Orantes led all players with 15 digs. Skinner recorded a match-high 15 successful receptions and Wong-Orantes finished with six.
Italy led in kills (45-35), blocks (11-0), aces (7-3) and made five fewer errors (17-12). Paola Egonu of Italy completed her torrid Olympic play with 22 points on 18 kills and four blocks.
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