Men's Volleyball Growth

USA vs. Italy: Lot’s of New!

2009-07-12T19:54:00.002-05:00

The Italian Men’s Volleyball National team will be returning to the Chicago area to play the USA Men’s National Volleyball team in the sixth round of the 2009 World League. The first match of this 2 match home series will be held tonight at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL. Team USA defeated Italy in both second round matches (3-1, 3-1) held in Italy in June. The last time Italy played in the Chicago area was during the 2007 World League competition where both matches were held at the brand new Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center at Chicago State University. There have been lots of changes in those two past years.

Team USA was coached by Hugh McCutcheon in 2007 and is now coached by Alan Knipe. Coach Knipe is on a leave of absence from a 9 year head coaching stint at Long Beach State University including a 2004 national championship appearance. Team Italy was coached by Gianpaolo Montali in 2007 and is now coached by Andrea Anastassi. Coach Anastassi returned to the Italian national team head coaching position in late 2007. While Coach Montali wore very sharp looking Italian suits while coaching during competition, Coach Anastassi looks comfortable wearing national team athletic coaching wear.

Team USA is returning 9 team members of the 2007 World League preliminary 19 man roster to the 2009 roster. The 2007 USA starting lineups versus Italy included Reid Priddy, Ryan Millar, Riley Salmon, Gabe Gardner and Brandon Taliaferro who are not listed in the 2009 preliminary 19 man roster. Team USA has been starting a younger lineup in the 2009 competition so far with Tom Hoff and Clay Stanley seeing little or no playing time. Off the 2007 World League starting roster, only David Lee has been a regular starter in 2009. Kevin Hansen has been splitting some time with Donald Suxho in the setter position.

Team Italy only has 7 returning players from their 2007 World League preliminary 19 man roster. Missing are names such as Mastrangelo, Cisolla, Fei and Paparoni. Mauro Gavotto, Cristian Savani and Andrea Sala are returning starters from the 2007 competition that are expected to be starting tonight.

Team USA won their first ever World League Gold medal in 2008 competition. They then went on to win their first Olympic Gold medal since 1988 in a highly dramatic run in Beijing. Team Italy, who has won 13 World League medals including 8 gold medals, has not placed in the top four since their third place finish in 2004. Italy did finish fourth in the 2008 Olympics. The US leads Pool A in the 2009 World League competition with 18 points and a 6-2 record. Italy is second with 14 points and a 5-3 record.

If you attended the 2007 World League matches, make sure you attend again this year as you will see lots of new faces. You should also see two Chicago area players, Sean Rooney (Wheaton, IL) and Andy Hein (Carol Stream, IL) in the starting line-ups. Tonight's match begins at 7 PM Central time.

Veteran Setter Makes A Difference

2009-07-12T19:52:00.001-05:00

Team Italy defeated Team USA 3-1 in World League Men’s international volleyball tonight at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois in front a crowd of 4,310 fans. After a great first set, Team USA struggled to get their offense to side out consistently and watched helplessly as Italy strung together 2 and 3 point runs in critical points in the next three sets. Although the team hitting percentages were close (.495 US versus .538 ITA) Team USA was out blocked 12 to 9.

For the first set, the US started Sean Rooney and Scott Touzinsky at the outsides, Captain David Lee and Andy Hein in the middle with Clay Stanley at opposite and Kevin Hansen setting. Team Italy started Cristian Savani and Matej Cernic at the outsides, Andrea Sala and Emanuele Biraelli at middle with Michal Lasko at opposite and Dragan Travica setting. Team Italy jumped to a 4-8 lead at the first technical timeout taking advantage of US service errors and an ace. The US tied it back up 10-10 when Sean Rooney crushed a no approach kill after a pancake save and a bump set two meters from the net. A five point run 16-17 to 21-17 opened up the set which Rooney ended with a high hands shot off a Rich Lambourne back bump set. Team Italy made a setter change bringing in veteran Valerio Vermiglio at 21-17. This change would be the beginning of a momentum change.

In the second set, Team Italy, lead by their setter Vermiglio, once again jumped out to a 4-8 lead at the first technical timeout. Coach Alan Knipe substituted Jayson Jablonsky for Touzinsky at that time out. After a couple of side outs by each team, Italy once again went on a run stretching their lead to 6-11 including a huge Savani line shot and a Lasko ace. The US got as close as two points but Italy ran three points at 19-21 including a stuff block of a David Lee quick attempt and a Stanley hitting error. Vermiglio connected with his middle, Biraelli for the final point (20-25). The change of setters changed Italy’s hitting percentage from an unimpressive .370 in the first set to an outstanding .620 in the second. Team USA racked up a 7-5 blocking advantage by the end of the second set but the serving resulted in 9 errors with no aces. Team Italy had 2 aces with only 6 service errors.

In the third set, Jablonsky started for Touzinsky but Team Italy continued their quick start including a 4 point run that Coach Knipe stopped with a time out at 4-7. Each team traded side outs and the US pushed the score to a 16-16 tie with a Clay Stanley ace. Side outs resulted in ties at 17, 18 and 19. A Rooney miss of a high hand shot and Italy’s Savani getting back-to-back kills pushed the score to 19-23. Evan Patak was brought on to serve for Sean Rooney hoping to get on one of his wonderful World League service runs. Patak’s first serve resulted in a poor pass and Vermiglio getting called on a double contact. It appeared Patak had another point on a back row roll shot to the end line but the up official overruled the line judge giving the point to Team Italy. Cristian Savani ended the set with another one of his booming line shot. Team Italy went up 2-1 on the 22-25 third set win.

In the fourth and final set, déjà vu set in as Team USA quickly went down by a score of 3-6 resulting in a Team USA time out. Italy sandwiched a couple of two point runs between a Stanley kill. Donald Suxho was brought in for Kevin Hansen at 10-13. David Smith was subbed in for Andy Hein at 11-15 and Team Italy quickly attacked the rookie with a quick set to Emanuele Biraelli in the middle resulting in an 11-16 score and technical time out. Team USA finally went on a run of their own getting 6 points and actually taking the lead 22-21. Italy used both of their time outs during that six point run. After knotting things up at 24 each, a David Smith service error and scramble play off of a Michal Lasko serve off the tape resulted in the US dig caroming past the US backline for the final point of the match. Italy won the match with a 24-26 fourth set score.

Middle Hitter will post expanded match coverage including match photos and press conference video Saturday morning.

That’s The Stanley I Remember

2009-07-12T19:50:00.001-05:00

Team USA defeated Team Italy in their second home matchup Saturday night 3-1 on the back of a vintage Clay Stanley performance. Stanley did not start the first two sets of the match but subbed in as a serving specialist. He replaced Evan Patak in the third and fourth sets and lead Team USA to victory with 4 aces and 6 kills. In addition, Stanley’s overpowering serves generated at least a half dozen additional points on Italian overpasses and out-of system plays reminding the crowd of 4,183 of his 2008 Olympic MVP performance.

The first set Team USA started Sean Rooney and Scott Touzinsky at outside, Andy Hein and David Lee in the middle with Evan Patak at Opposite and Donald Suxho getting the starting setter duties. Team Italy started Christian Savani and Matej Cernic at outside, Andrea Sala and Emanuele Birarelli at middle with Michal Lasko at opposite and veteran Valerio Vermiglio as the setter. Both team traded side outs until 11-11 where Team USA ripped a three point run including a Scott Touzinsky ace in the deep right corner forcing an Italian team time out. The US had one more three point push off two Patak kills bringing them to a 23-18 lead and another Italian time out. Mauro Gavotta served long as a serving specialist for Team USA’s set point. Team USA hit .530 with one ace and 2 blocks. Team Italy hit .430 with no aces and 2 blocks. Sean Rooney had an excellent first set with 6 kills and 1 block.

In Set Two, Team USA avoided starting out in the hole like that had Friday night leading up to a 7-8 score at the first technical time out. Team Italy completed a three point run off a Lasko high hands kill and Evan Patak being called in the net. Team USA countered with a three point run including a Suxho one-on-one stuff of Christian Savani. Team Italy surged back with 6 points in a row including two block kills and a Lasko ace resulting in a 14-19 lead. Paul Lottman was brought in for Scott Touzinsky at 18-24 and Team Italy served directly to him. Despite the good serve receive Team Italy won the set 18-25 after two attempts in a row by Sean Rooney were sent back by the Italian block. Team USA dropped to a .330 hitting percentage with 0 aces and 3 blocks. Team Italy jumped up to a .500 hitting percentage, picked up an ace and four blocks.

Coach Alan Knipe made a change in the middle for the third set by starting David Smith for Andy Hein. Smith’s presence was felt as he contributed two kills and two blocks for points in the third set. Both teams traded side outs for most of the first half including a 14-14 tie. Clayton Stanley was subbed in for Patak at the 10-11 mark and contributed two aces in a row to fire up his team. A Touzinsky kill through the block gave Team USA set point at 24-18. The Italians fought off five set points but lost on a Cernic service error (long) resulting in a 25-22 score.

Coach Knipe kept Stanley in the lineup for the beginning of the fourth set. Sean Rooney and Clay Stanley rose up to the occasion and lead their team with a combined 10 kills and 3 aces in the final set. Stanley’s two aces and a back row kill were part of a five point run resulting in a Team USA 16-10 lead. Evan Patak played the serving specialist role and added his own ace in the deep right corner for a 22-17 lead. Rooney complete the match victory with a smash through an Italian double block.

With tonight’s win, Team USA can lock in first place in Pool A with a single 3-0 or 3-1 win in one of the their two remaining pool play matches against The Netherlands next weekend in Wichita. The winner of each pool advances to the Final Round of Six being hosted by Serbia. The final round will be played over 5 days in Belgrade. The four pool winners, the host country (Serbia) and a wild card team will make up the six teams. Team USA has advanced to the Final Round both in 2007 resulting in a fourth place finish and 2008 where they won their first World League championship.

Boy’s High School Volleyball Continues Growth Trend

2008-11-08T11:28:00.009-06:00

The number of boys participating in high school volleyball increased 3.6% in the past twelve months according to the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) survey. There were 47,878 boys playing boys volleyball at some level during the 2007-2008 school year compared to 46,224 during the previous year.

The NFHS released its 2007-2008 High School Sports Participation survey results on September 4th. In that initial release, certain state boy’s volleyball information appeared either missing (Missouri) or needed clarification (California). Middle Hitter recently communicated with NFHS regarding this information and received a prompt response and clarification. The NFHS results are based on figures from the 50 state high school athletic/activity associations, plus the District of Columbia that are members of the NFHS.

The fastest growing states were Ohio, New York and Wisconsin. California reported the same exact number of boys participants as there were in the 2006-2007 school year. NFHS indicated that some states only calculate the participants every two years versus every year but could not confirm if this were the case for the 2007-2008 California figures.

The top three states in number of participants were California, Illinois and New York. California doubles second place Illinois in total number of participants (see table). New York displaced Pennsylvania (3,636) for third place. One of the more interesting statistics is the average number of participants per school. Illinois clearly outranks other states with a 36.7 number of participants per school program. California which ranks number one in participants and schools falls to ninth place in average per school (23.48).

A top ten list of the above statistics plus an 18 year history of boy’s high school volleyball participation can be found on the web site version of this article “High School Program Growth”.

Team USA Aces Way into World League Final Six

2008-09-03T15:06:00.001-05:00

The following post is an article I posted on www.middlehitter.com originally on July 12, 2008. I posted it here on the blog as it has been moved to the website archives.

Team USA clinched first place in Pool C of the 2008 World League preliminary rounds behind the power of a strong serving and blocking game including 9 aces. The scores were 24-26, 25-22, 25-13 and 25-18. Earlier in the day Finland defeated Bulgaria 3-2 in Varna setting up the clincher. Tonight’s match was once again held at US Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, IL in front of another large crowd of 4,957. Reid Priddy lead Team USA with 21 points including 15 kills, 5 blocks and 1 ace. Iban Perez, despite missing the fourth set, lead Team Spain with 14 points consisting of 13 kills and 1 block.

Tonight’s starters for Team USA were Reid Priddy, Lloy Ball and Ryan Millar in the front row. David Lee, Clay Stanley and Sean Rooney started in the back row with Rich Lambourne as the libero. Team Spain started Francisco Rodriguez, Iban Perez and Julian Garcia-Torres in the front row with Javier Subiela, Guillermo Hernan and Manual Sevillano across the back. Alexis Valido was the libero.

The first set began much like the last set of Friday night’s match with Team Spain leading much of the match and each team getting short runs of points. Clay Stanley lead the set with 1 ace and 5 kills including one cross court smash from the left side that caused pain when it bent back Spain libero Alexis Valido’s fingers as he attempted to dig it with his hands. Team Spain was serving tough many times choosing Sean Rooney as their target. Coach Hugh McCutcheon substituted Riley Salmon for Rooney at the 11-14 mark after Rooney shanked an Alfonso Flores serve. Reid Priddy tied the match at 24-24 with a cross court kill off the libero with no blockers up. Riley Salmon was wide on the next attack and Spain stuffed Ryan Millar for the set point winning 26-24.

In the second set both teams served strong and were siding out effectively. After a Team USA time out, a Francisco Rodriguez attack hit the tape and rolled across out of bounds setting up another Clay Stanley serving run. Stanley’s service took Team USA from 19-20 to 23-20 including two aces. During this run Coach McCutcheon substituted team captain Tom Huff as a blocking specialist for Riley Salmon. Huff served as the middle with Ryan Millar playing the left side position. A Rodriguez jump float service error gave USA the 25-22 set victory.

Team USA provided a blocking and serving clinic during the third set winning it 25-13. Lloy Ball, Priddy and Millar each served an ace. Reid Priddy had 3 of Team USA’s 6 blocks during the set. Coach Marcelo Mendez tried several substitutions to re-energize his team but to no avail. The Hoff-Salmon sub during Stanley’s serve at the 18-8 mark resulted in a Millar kill from the left side and a Hoff kill in the middle.

During the final set both teams traded side outs until another Stanley service run brought Team USA to an 11-8 lead. Juan Carlos Barcala started the 4th set in place of Iban Perez. Kevin Hansen was substituted for David Lee as a serving specialist but served wide right. Ryan Millar once again scored a kill from the left side during the Stanley serve, Hoff-Salmon sub strategy. David Lee ended the set and match with a quick in the middle.

Team USA will travel back to Anaheim then head to Varna, Bulgaria for their final two matches. The team will travel directly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the finals after the matches in Bulgaria. It is anticipated that Team Bulgaria will be using their most experienced players during those two matches in Varna. This was not the case during the US matches held in Hoffman Estates, IL. Gabe Gardeners injury appears to be minor as it was reported that he did participate in practice earlier in the day.

Team USA Finds Way to Win in Three

2008-09-03T14:59:00.002-05:00

The following post is an article I posted on www.middlehitter.com originally on July 11, 2008. I posted it here on the blog as it has been moved to the website archives.

An unexpected large crowd of 4,610 cheered Team USA to a 3-0 victory (25-19, 25-23, 27-25) at US Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, IL. The central Illinois city of Bloomington is 3 hours away from Chicago and St. Louis in an area with no boy’s high school or club volleyball programs. Add in the fact that the AVP Crocs Slam McDonalds Chicago Open was being held at Oak Street Beach in Chicago, IL was drawing Chicago area fans away from the World League match.

Team USA entered the match with a 7-1 record and first place in Pool C. Their only loss was a 2-3 setback against Bulgaria on the second night of their home match duo in Hoffman Estates, IL. Team Spain enters this match with a 3-5 record in Pool C. Spain’s wins are two off Finland with an additional upset victory against Bulgaria (3-1). Team USA defeated Spain twice last weekend while playing in Spain.

Team USA qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics during the NORCECA Continental Championship by taking the Gold medal in January. Spain’s last chance at qualifying for the Beijing was the World Qualification tournament held in Düsseldorf, Germany May 23rd-25th. They missed their opportunity with a 1-2 record. Their losses were to Team Cuba (1-3) and the winner Team Germany (2-3).

Starting for Team USA was Reid Priddy, Lloy Ball and Ryan Millar in the front row with David Lee, Gabe Gardner and Riley Salmon in the back. Rich Lambourne was the libero. Starting for Team Spain was Luis Pedro Suella, Iban Perez and Julian Garcia-Torres in the front row with Javier Subiela, Alfonso Flores and Manuel Sevillano in the back. Alexis Valido was the libero.

The young Spanish team quickly found themselves down 7-2 in the first set despite an early time out called at 4-2. Gabe Gardner was stuffed blocked at 12-6 but landed awkwardly catching himself on the right side post. He was immediately removed from the match and replaced by Clay Stanley. Both teams traded short runs of points throughout the rest of the match. Team USA ended the set with another stuff block. Team USA hit .440 with 6 blocks and 1 ace in the first set. Team Spain hit .290 with 2 aces and two blocks. Tom Hoff entered the match as a blocking specialist at 21-15.

In the second set it appeared to be all Team Spain as they led the entire match until the last few points. Spain jumped out to a 7-3 lead by shutting down a Clay Stanley attack prompting Coach McCutcheon to call a time out. Team USA stayed close throughout the match assisted with 5 aces and 5 Team Spain service errors. Coach McCutcheon called his second time out when Spain went up 22-19. Luis Pedro served into the net after the time out and Lloy Ball poked the second contact to the deep back right corner after seeing the Spanish libero Alexis Valido drawn up expecting a tip. The shorter Valido was able to jump up to get a finger tip on the dump shot but it was deflected past the end line for a Team USA point. Team Spain recovered with a Perez cross court kill making it 23-21 Spain. A Clay Stanley cross court kill followed by a Lloy Ball 3 point serving run resulted in Team USA taking the set 25-23. Team Spain had a better attacking percentage in the second set (.400 vs. .360) but trailed in the blocks and aces category.

The third set was an overtime seesaw match with neither team ever leading by more than two points. It was apparent that Team Spain’s second set heartbreaking loss was not impacting their spirit. Midway through the match, Coach McCutcheon substituted Sean Rooney for Riley Salmon. During the press conference Coach was asked about his strategy for the substitution commenting that while Salmon’s passing and defense was good his ability to side out wasn’t where we needed it to be. In the end both teams traded points from 21-21 to 25-25. The final two Team USA points were assisted by mistimed quick hits between Team Spain’s setter Hernan and middle Garcia-Torres. The first resulted into a Garcia-Torres hit into the net and the last resulted in a free ball setting up a Rooney back row attack for set and match point, 27-25.

Team USA is now 8-1 in Pool C with Bulgaria at 5-3. Bulgaria plays Finland on Saturday and Sunday. Team USA will meet Team Spain again Saturday night in Bloomington. Gabe Gardner’s injury was not expected to be serious but Coach McCutcheon was unsure if Gardner would participate in Saturday’s match.

Team USA Plays Jekyll and Hyde in Loss to Bulgaria

2008-09-03T14:17:00.002-05:00

The following post is an article I posted on www.middlehitter.com originally on June 21, 2008. I posted it here on the blog as it has been moved to the website archives.

After being handily swept Friday night, Team Bulgaria defeated Team USA in a see-saw five set match Saturday night, 12-25, 25-16, 25-20, 12-25 and 15-13 in front of a crowd of 5,100 fans at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL. Team USA continued its dominance in the first and fourth sets with 25-12 victories in both. However, Team Bulgaria proved more resilient tonight as they took sets two, three and the deciding fifth set.

Coach Hugh McCutcheon changed the lineup as planned for the second match of this home series. Local favorite Sean Rooney and Riley Salmon played for Reid Priddy and Scott Touzinsky at the outside positions. Gabe Gardner replaced Clay Stanley at opposite, David Lee played middle for Tom Hoff and Kevin Hansen replaced Lloy Ball at setter. The only starters to return from Friday night were Ryan Millar and Rich Lambourne.

In the first set Sean Rooney hammered home a kill for side out. From there, Ryan Millar’s float serve took Team USA to a 5-0 lead. After a Bulgarian change of setters Teodor Aleksiev smashed a cross court kill with only one blocker up to finally get on the scoreboard. Team USA pushed ahead with scores of 12-3 and 19-9. Clay Stanley served out the last five points causing the Bulgarians to play out-of-system including one ace.

The second set awoke the Team Bulgaria blocking machine as they had 6 blocks versus none in the first set. The blocking caused Team USA to adjust their hitting resulting in their attack percentage dropping in half (.380). The Bulgarian serve receive also improved with to a .670 excellent reception allowing them to run their full offense. Bulgaria was up by scores of 8-4 and 16-9 as the match progressed. A Bulgarian 12 to 4 run stretched the lead. Danail Milushev finished the set with a roll shot ace serve.

Set three was close with each team trading 2 and 3 point runs. Boyan Yordanov stepped up for Team Bulgaria with 7 kills this set and a tough left handed serve that forced Team USA into a lot of out-of-system offensive play. Martin Penev also contributed four kills for Bulgaria during this set. Sean Rooney and Gabe Gardner kept Team USA close as USA lead at 17-16. Clay Stanley and Reid Priddy each had a chance to enter the match as a serving specialist in the third set but neither could get anything going. Bulgaria won the set 25-20 after a long rally.

Lloy Ball replaced Kevin Hansen for Team USA to start the fourth set. The change of setters resulted in an instant improvement in the hitting percentage (.500 vs. .320). Team USA blocking returned with David Lee and Ryan Millar each getting two blocks and a team total of 6 for the set. Clay Stanley and Reid Priddy each generated an ace in their serving specialist role. The US leads included 8-4, 15-6 and 20-7. At one point it appeared Team USA would hold Team Bulgaria to under 10 points when they held a 23-8 lead. Team Bulgaria battled back to 23-12 until Team USA won the set with a block of a Martin Penev pipe set.

The final set started out with a quick 3-0 push for Team USA behind David Lee’s float serve. A Sean Rooney cross court kill brought the score to 6-4 but Rooney was stuffed the very next two plays bringing Team Bulgaria to a 6-6 tie. The teams traded side outs including a controversial call on a joust that was called out of bounds against Bulgaria. Clay Stanley entered the set as a serving specialist at 11-11 but bombed the serve long. It looked like Team USA was on their way to a victory after Rooney and Salmon kills brought the score to 13-11 and forced a Bulgaria time out. A Salmon serve into the net and a Yordanov tool tied it up at 13-13. Bulgarian setter Andrey Zhekov was hit on the side of the face during a scramble for the ball but Yordanov makes a backset setting up the next kill. The match ends when Ryan Millar cuts a quick hit wide giving Team Bulgaria a 15-13 set and match win.

Sean Rooney lead Team USA with 15 kills, 4 blocks and 1 ace totaling 20 points. Boyan Yordanov lead Team Bulgaria with 19 points made up of 16 kills and 3 blocks. Team USA led Team Bulgaria in the blocks and aces department, 17 blocks versus 12 and 7 aces versus 1.

Team USA and Team Bulgaria both are 3-1 in World League Pool C competition. Team USA does lead in sets and points percentage. Team USA will return to Southern California to prepare for Finland next weekend in Green Bay, WI. Finland is 0-4 in Pool C with losses against the US and Spain. Team Bulgaria is flying directly to Spain to prepare for next weekend’s two matches. Spain is 2-2 in the competition dropping two to Bulgaria and winning both matches against Finland. Friday and Saturday’s matches in Hoffman Estates, IL were broadcast live to Bulgaria and will be shown tape delayed in the US on ESPNU.

Team USA Crushes Young Bulgarian Roster

2008-09-03T14:16:00.002-05:00

The following post is an article I posted on www.middlehitter.com originally on June 20, 2008. I posted it here on the blog as it has been moved to the website archives.

Team USA defeated Team Bulgaria in three quick sets Friday night, 25-23, 25-16 and 25-16 in front of a crowd of 4, 450 fans. The starting rotation for Team USA was Hoff, Priddy and Ball across the front row with Stanley, Touzinsky and Millar across the back. Lambourne was the libero. Team Bulgaria started Gaydarski, Aleksiev, Zhekov across the front with Milushev, Ananiev and Tsvetanov across the back row with Salparov as Libero.

Bulgaria played even with USA in the first set including leading 17-15 at one point. While Bulgaria had a higher attacking percentage (.640 vs. .550) and out blocked (3 vs. 2) Team USA, the difference was Reid Priddy’s two service aces during a run that took the US from a 17-18 deficit to a 22-18 lead. That run seemed to take the energy out of the young Bulgarian team.

The second set was all USA as they pushed an early lead from 9-4 to 17-8 and 20-12 leads later in the set. Lloy Ball had three of his four match aces in this set changing the serves from a short roll to a well placed line serve. A couple of mental breakdowns occurred during the set for both teams. Tsvetan Sokolov had an easy USA serve receive over pass to put down but he stuffed it straight down on the Bulgarian side of the net. The very next play Team USA watched a bumped free ball land between them in the campfire coverage mode. Reid Priddy ended the set with a crushing cross shot.

The third set started out tighter with both teams trading points until 11-11. Danail Milushev, Bulgaria’s top scorer with 14 points blasted the 11th point on a tight set but appeared to strain his lower back while landing and ducking under the outside portion of the net. Next up was the Clayton Stanley serving show. Stanley took team USA from 12-11 to a 17-11 lead including 4 aces and one crushing serve resulting in an easy overpass kill for Ryan Millar. This removed the fight from the young Bulgarian team resulting in an easy 25-16 Team USA victory.

The next match will be Saturday night at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL.

Bulgaria: Preparing for the Olympics and the Future...

2008-09-03T14:11:00.005-05:00

The following post is an article I posted on www.middlehitter.com originally on June 18, 2008. I posted it here on the blog as it has been moved to the website archives.

Bulgarian Coach Martin Stoev will mix his experienced and younger players throughout the 2008 World League competition. Bulgaria, who qualified for the 2008 Olympics with their Bronze medal finish during the 2007 World Cup competition, will rest their top players throughout most of World League. According to Coach Steov, “For the first 8 games of the World League I will give a break to the captain Plamen Konstantinov, the middle blocker Evgeni Ivanov and the opposite hitter Vlado Nikolov. After the first two matches against Spain in Varna I will let Matey Kaziysky go to a holiday.” The World League finals are being held July 23rd through the 27th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is just two weeks from the start of the Olympic competition (beginning August 9th).

Bulgaria had a strong showing in 2007, taking 5th place in the World League and winning the bronze medal in the World Cup. Bulgaria is currently ranked fourth in the World by FIVB, behind Brazil, Russia and the USA respectively. According to the FIVB team summary, “The year 2008 marks the 87th year since volleyball first arrived in Bulgaria. It all began in 1922 when, for a short time, Volleyball was hugely popular and became one of most practiced sports in Bulgaria… Bulgaria has more than 111 registered Volleyball clubs and over 5,500 Volleyball players from all age groups.”

Plamen Konstantinov (#17), Evgeni Ivanov (#1) and Vladimir Nikolov (#11) are the experienced veterans of the Bulgarian national team. Matey Kaziyski, who plays in the Italian Serie A with Trento Volley SPA, is considered one of the top outside hitters in the world. The 6'8" outside hitter is listed with a 12'2" spike touch. Captain Plamen Konstantinov the other outside wing spiker whose experience (over 400 caps) is very important for the team. Vladimir Nikolov, opposite, played on the Trento Volley SPA club with Kaziyski.

The World League rules require each national team to submit a roster of 19 players who can be used throughout the competition. During the preliminary inquiry, which usually occurs the day before the first match of the weekend, each team must submit their 12 player roster that will be used for that weekend’s two matches. The coach is limited to those 12 players during the two matches for that weekend. The 12 player roster can be changed from weekend to weekend as long as the 12 are from the original 19 list.

Coach Martin Stoev became head coach for Team Bulgaria in 2005. Coach Stoev started playing volleyball in 1984 and played over 200 matches for the Bulgarian National Team during the 1991 to 1999 time period. When Coach Stoev was asked about the competition in Pool C he responded: "This year our group for the World League is very tough and all the teams have their chances of winning. It is even more complicated since Bulgaria and USA are preparing for the Olympic tournament. We won the two matches against Spain in Varna, if we manage to take one victory on US ground this will give us a good base to attack the first place in the group." Stoev added, “If Bulgaria manages to qualify for the final six in Brasil we will go on that tournament with the younger players while the main team will be preparing for the Olympics.”

The World League began in 1990 with an 8 team format and has since grown to 16 teams. The Intercontinental round takes place over six weekends. The teams are split in four - 4 team pools and each team will play two matches against the same team (from their pool) on separate days over the same weekend (Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday). There are three weekends at home and three away resulting in a total of 12 matches for each team during this round.

Team USA will host Bulgaria during Week 2 (June 20th-21st) of the World League. USA will visit Bulgaria in final week (July 18th-19th) of regular competition. These matches, held in the Palace of Culture & Sports in Varna (Bulgaria’s third largest city) will most likely decide who will take first place in Pool C and advance to the Final Round of Six held in Brazil.

Finland: A very young team, but with big dreams...

2008-06-23T16:19:00.014-05:00

The following post is an article I posted on www.middlehitter.com originally on June 9, 2008. I posted it here on the blog as it has been moved to the website archives.

Finland is currently ranked 22nd in the World by FIVB moving up from their previous ranking of 29th. Head Coach Mauro Berutto has big plans for the young team, “our target will be to make a wonderful experience, useful for our two next very important targets: European Championship finals (2009) and World Championship qualifications. We are a very young team, but with big dreams...”

The senior members of Team Finland are Mikko Esko (#3-Setter) and Olli Kunnari (#12-Outside Hitter) with 131 and 128 national team matches respectively. Esko plays for the Italian Serie A club team Antonveneta Padova. The Italian Serie A league has been long considered the top international league. Kunnari plays for AS Cannes in the French Pro A league. Middle Hitter recently watched Kunnari play in the 2008 French Cup semi-final match versus Beauvais in March (see photo). Matti Oivanen (#15-Middle Blocker), Konstantine Shumov (#14- Middle Blocker) and Anti Siltala (#5- Outside Hitter) have each had 50 or more national team matches since 2005. Team Finland has 4 players on their 19 man roster who are new to the national team and have no national team match playing experience.

The World League rules require each national team to submit a roster of 19 players who can be used throughout the competition. During the preliminary inquiry, which usually occurs the day before the first match of the weekend, each team must submit their 12 player roster that will be used for that weekend’s two matches. The coach is limited to those 12 players during the two matches for that weekend. The 12 player roster can be changed from weekend to weekend as long as the 12 are from the original 19 list.

Team Finland is 16 – 12 in match play since May of 2007 including a 4th place finish in the 2007 European Championships. Finland restarted its participation in World League in 2006 when FIVB expanded the number of teams from 12 to 16 (so did the US). Finland took 7th place in the World League on 2007 and 10th in 2006. USA is 9 – 2 versus Finland all time. The last time Finland and USA played was in 1984 when the US won 3-0. While the US has played in Finland 7 times in the past, this June (27th & 28th) will be the first time Finland has played in the US.The World League began in 1990 with an 8 team format and has since grown to 16 teams. The Intercontinental round takes place over six weekends. The teams are split in four - 4 team pools and each team will play two matches against the same team (from their pool) on separate days over the same weekend (Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday). There are three weekends at home and three away resulting in a total of 12 matches for each team during this round.

Coach Mauro Berutto is from Italy and was one of the assistant coaches during Italy’s 2004 Olympic silver medal performance. Coach Berutto was named the Team Sport Coach of the Year in Finland in 2007. Middle Hitter asked Coach Berutto how he thought the competition in this year’s World League Pool C would look. Here is what he had to say: “Our Pool will be really tough: Spain1, European Champion and fighting for Beijing, USA and Bulgaria, teams already qualified for the Olympics and with medal dreams. Difficult to define the toughest one, but I believe that the fight for the 1st place and for the tickets for the Brazilian final six will be decided with the last ball between USA and Bulgaria.”

Team USA will begin the World League with an away weekend against Finland. The matches will be held at LänsiAuto Arena in Espoo, Finland. LänsiAuto Arena, in Tapiola, opened in 1999 and holds 7,036 people. Its sponsor is Finland’s largest chain of fast food hamburger outlets and restaurants. Finland will play Team USA on June 27-28 at the Resch Center in Green Bay, WI.

Ball, Stanley and Giba...

2007-11-07T17:35:00.000-06:00

Russian League Match Comments
Iskra Odintsovo vs. Dynamo Kazan

Dinamo TTG Kazan Roster (wearing Blue)
1 - Lloy Ball (USA)
2 - Pavel Zaytsev
3 - Alexander Kosarev
5 - Alexander Bogomolov
7 - Alexey Bovduy
8 - Sergey Tetyukhin
9 - Artem Ermakov
11 - Nikolay Apalikov
13 - Clayton Stanley (USA)
14 - Andrey Egorchev
15 - Alexander Gerasimov
17 - Vladislav Babichev

Iskra Odintsovo Roster (wearing Red )
1 - Denis Kalinin
2 - Oleg Samsonychev
4 - Sergey Khoroshev
5 - Pavel Abramov
6 - Alexey Kuleshov
7 - Gilberto Godoy Filho (BRA) Giba
8 - Alexander Butko (BLR)
9 - Mikhail Beketov
10 - Jochen Schops (GER)
12 - Taras Khtey
16 - Anton Astashenkov
18 - Alexey Verbov

The Russian national team libero #18-Alexey Verbov and #6-Alexey Kuleshov are on Iskra. I see both teams have Mizuno uniforms. I wonder if all teams in this league are wearing Mizuno?

Set One
Early on, Stanley starts with 3 hard serves followed by Giba returning three hard serves. Stanley and Ball hook up on the right side often. Initially, Stanley looks unstoppable with a mix of line, cross, splitting the blockers or just plain tooling. Giba, too, is unstoppable from both the front row and the pipe set. Iskra Odintsovo wins first set 25-21.

I notice fans have oval wooden paddles with a strap they use for clapping and there are a fair number of troops dressed in fatigues in the stands.

Set Two
Dynamo Kazan goes ahead 19-15 but loses 5 straight points on a combination of hitting errors and getting stuffed. After trading points, Giba serves into the net. By looking at his face, the Iskra Odintsovo coach was not happy! Stanley is serving for Dynamo Kazan but he hits it long making it 22-21 Iskra Odintsovo. The next serve Giba receives it short, backs up and takes a pipe set. Giba’s attack is over passed back over the net after a soft block. Iskra Odintsovo sets a quick middle after the overpass but the middle hits it out wide.

At 23 all and after a short rally, Stanley blasts from the backrow right side but is dug. The dig flies out past the end and side lines but the Iskra libero Alexey Verbov pursued the ball all the way into the Dynamo Kazan bench. Iskra returned a free ball. The free ball was again set by Ball to Stanley on the right side but he was stuffed straight down. 24-23 Iskra Odintsovo. It was tied back up at 24 but two quick points gave Iskra Odintsovo the victory 26-24 putting them up two sets to none.

General Observations
Ball doesn't seem to set the middles very often even on good serve receive. The Dynamo Kazan middle Andrey Egorchev (#14) is tall, has a big frame but is a little slow. Perhaps that is the reason he doesn't get set. The Iskra Odintsovo coach reminds me of Bill Murray, the actor, especially when he makes his funny faces reacting to plays. Russian telecasts do a great job of catching the facial expressions of the players and coaches. They then include these expressions in their time out video highlight medleys.

I wonder how they communicate on these teams? I guess players like Ball and Stanley have picked up enough Russian to get by. I am guessing Rooney (playing on Dinamo-Yantar) as a rookie in Russia, might find it more difficult. Of course, you could put up with the difficult communications for the money they pay! I suppose they have players & coaches that can assist in the translation. There are also many signals and gestures that are common throughout the world, such as out, no touch, touch, the look of frustration....

Set Three
In the third set, Iskra Odintsovo goes ahead early but Dynamo Kazan attempts a comeback with a 4 point run. However, Iskra Odintsovo continues to maintain a 2-3 point lead for the middle point of the match. In one play, Ball backsets Stanley for a Dynamo Kazan BR right side. Stanley slams it home straight down the line. I noticed Stanley looking through the net with a big smile just after the play. I wasn't sure what he was smiling at until I saw the replay. The Iskra Odintsovo libero had read cross and ran from the line to the middle of the court leaving the line shot wide open. As I stated before, the Iskra Odintsovo libero 18 - Alexey Verbov is very animated and must have been the reason for the smile. I guess Iskra Odintsovo got the last smile as they stuff blocked Stanley on the very next play.

Late in the 3rd set they pull Ball and Stanley (after Stanley missed his serve) and replaced them with another setter Pavel Zaytsev (#2) and a different opposite. Iskra Odintsovo won 25-22 anyway.

Boy’s High School Volleyball Grows 16.2%

2007-10-07T06:30:00.003-05:00

According to the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) report released on September 5th, boy’s high school volleyball continued its growth pattern. During the 2006-2007 school year, the number of schools having boy’s volleyball programs grew from 1,726 schools to 2,006 schools, a 16.2% increase.

The number of boys participating in boy’s high school volleyball grew from 42,878 to 46,224, an increase of 3,346 boys. The 46,224 participation number now exceeds the 1973-1974 numbers (43,050) and is the third highest rate since NFHS has collected and published the participation information. The NFHS results are based on figures from the 50 state high school athletic/activity associations, plus the District of Columbia that are members of the NFHS.

The highest number of boys participating in high school volleyball according to NFHS records is 63,544 which occurred during the 1971-1972 school year. The following year, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) legislation was passed. In an unfortunate side-effect of an otherwise very positive goal, boy’s and men’s volleyball opportunities shrank drastically as schools attempted to comply with Title IX requirements.

Graphs of boy’s high school volleyball participation and growth rates can be found at: High School Program Growth

Men's News Tidbits

2007-09-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

More AVCA/USAV Coaching Meeting Notes
During the meeting that occurred during July (at the JO’s), the topic of raising the number of scholarship equivalents from 4.5 to 7 was discussed. The MPSF is working with their coaches and administrators to garner support. The next step would be to approach the NCAA. The MPSF members agreed to hold off raising the issue to the NCAA until AFTER the acceptance of expanding the NCAA Championship tournament from 4 teams to 8 teams. The Championship expansion issue is already in front of the NCAA. It was approved in concept but was not funded in the last budget cycle. Hopefully, it will get funded this year!

NORCECA Continental Championships
The US national team performed well, as expected, against the NORCEA teams during the championship. They captured the Gold Medal earning a spot in Novembers World Cup. The top 3 teams of the World Cup will earn a spot in the 2008 Olympics. They only lost two sets in the entire tournament. The sad thing is the attendance. Now that the national team has moved to Southern California for training purposes, you would think they could draw more than 900 fans at the Gold Medal match. They drew a total of 3,625 total cumulative fans during their 5 matches. In comparison, the European Championship match held in Russia, had 9,300 in attendance in that one match! Volleyball may have been invented in the US but the rest of the world has sure embraced the game more aggressively.

National Team Video
I was in discussions with USAV about their plans on sharing video of the tournament with the fans. USAV is working on an upgrade to their website that would allow them to provide more video but it isn’t completed at this time. I have offered to host match video on Middle Hitter as an alternative until the USAV website is ready. USAV said they would consider the alternative and get back to me. Hopefully, one way or another, the fans who do not live in Southern California can see some of the action.

I have seen two short video’s with members of the national team on YouTube recently. The first one was “USA Volleyball Short Shorts”. The second one was "Danny Kinda and Team USA". Both videos are funny, at least for those fans who really follow men's volleyball. They must be sanctioned by USAV because several players are in each video and the second video even has Coach McCutcheon! Check em out... Since many of the national team players played way before most of the high school age players even thought about volleyball, it is good for the kids to see the players in something more than a few photos and statistics.

DI Schools Who Can Afford to Expand

2007-08-19T20:06:00.000-05:00

In between the two four day sessions of the USAV Junior Olympic National Tournament held in Atlanta this past July, the AVCA and USAV held a coaches meeting on the status of men's and boy's volleyball. Several topics were discussed but I am going to focus on DI expansion during this post.

Kathy DeBoer, AVCA Executive Director shared a report with the attendees that listed all the Division IA programs and their Title IX proportionality numbers. The list highlighted schools that had the potential to "overcome" the Title IX issue because they had a higher percentage of female athletes than the percentage of total female undergraduates. For example, the University of Cincinnati has a 50.5% female to male ratio of athletes but only a 47.3% female to male undergraduates ratio. In short, Cincinnati could add male athletes at the varsity level and not fail the Title IX test.

Of course, Title IX is not the only reason for DI schools not sponsoring a varsity sport. There is always the program costs issue. However, most schools use the Title IX issue as their excuse.

The list provided to the attendees highlighted both DI schools who were "just below" the female to male ratio comparison and several that had a higher female to male ratio. The schools that had "room to spare" include:
Cincinnati
Georgia Tech
Kansas State
Maryland
Michigan
Nevada-Reno
Oklahoma State
Purdue
Toledo
U.S. Military Academy-Army

The source quoted by AVCA/USAV was the WSF article in USA Today. The list is larger if it includes those highlighted because they are near the ratio.

Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Maryland and Purdue were all at the most recent NIRSA national tournament. Do they want to upgrade to a varsity program????

The Off Season

2007-08-11T08:40:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness the national teams are active, otherwise this would be a very slow season for men's volleyball. I don't mind watching some AVP action but I have a strong preference for the 6 man indoor version of volleyball. Maybe it is because my age has caught up with me and covering the sand court with two people is totally exhausting for me (after only 3 or 4 rallies), :)

The Men's National Team had a great World League tournament. It is good to see the USA back into the medals for an international tournament. Their "older" roster of players performed well against many of their competitors who were using younger, less-experienced players intentionally or due to injury. I think the momentum will boost their confidence as they enter the 2008 Olympic qualifying tournament rounds. It does worry me some that they still have to play some teams who will bring their experienced rosters to these tournaments and the Olympics. Only time will tell.

A couple of months ago, I noticed that the Canadian National Team website listed Anaheim as the playing location for a September tournament. I looked at the USAV and NORCECA websites and could not find any tournament listed for Anaheim. I suspected the NORCECA tournament would be the one listed on the Canadian website. This was confirmed last weeek when USAV announced the tournament will be played in Anaheim September 16th through the 21st. I know the California fans were complaining when World League didn't schedule one of the three weekends in California. It looks like USAV already knew that California was getting the NORCECA. The NORCECA tournament will provide locals to see a lot more than one team and a lot more matches than a World League event. So congratulations.

I am starting a list of "things to do" for the Middle Hitter website this upcoming collegiate season. I will share some of them on another post.

Let's see if I can keep my resolutions to post more frequently this year, at least during the off-season.

The Slow Time in Men's Volleyball (for most)

2007-07-23T18:05:00.001-05:00

It has been a while since I created a post from scratch. The last three posts were actually articles I wrote while attending the World League matches here in Chicago. That is a story in itself, if I ever get around to it.

Most players have either finished their high school and club team summer camps by now. There are a few weeks left before schools starts so players get to take some time off. The smart ones will find some friends and some sand to play some beach. Nothing like sand to improve your ball handling and your leg strength. Some areas have summer high school leagues where team members can get together to play other schools. This is usually a very casual league with teams sometimes having problems getting enough players (6) to play due to work, summer school and vacations. In Illinois, the high school coach cannot be in attendance at these matches so it is usually self-coached.

A few players are playing on the Junior, Youth and High Performance camps and associated tournaments. They are the ones who get the least rest but then they are the ones who will get the most looks from college coaches. No pain, no gain.... :)

Investing In The Future

2007-07-14T20:52:00.000-05:00

I am capturing this article in my blog since I will eventually be moving the article off of the home page.

In the post-match press conference after Team USA’s 3-0 World League victory over Italy, there were several discussions by both coaches on the future of their teams. I thought I would share some of their thoughts and comments.

Coach Gianpaolo Montali, the head coach of the Italian National Team took some time to discuss his philosophy for the 2007 World League competition. Coach Montali became the head coach in 2003 and his many accomplishments include the silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The Italian team currently has four experienced players who are recovering from injuries and did not travel with the team to the US. Players such as Luigi Mastrangelo (MH), Matej Cernic, and Alessandro Fei (MH) are expected to return to the team this fall. Although they may have missed some practice with the team, the Italians will be ready for 2008 Olympic qualification tournaments including the key European Championships qualifier.

During the World League series, Coach Montali stated that he was using this opportunity to prepare his less experienced players for the future. He feels the experience they gain in the World League will prepare them for competition in 2009-2010. While he feels the athletes are very good, they do not have the experience necessary to play at the highest level. Montali offered an example using Saturday night’s second set against the US. The Italians has three match points but were unable to close it for a victory. The US ended up winning the set 30-28. Coach feels that a more experienced team would have most likely been able to turn those opportunities into a winning set for Italy instead of the US. Coach Montali also offered that the roster he has chosen for the World League matches in Chicago would most likely not qualify for the Olympics based on that inexperience.

Montali was also asked if he would prefer if his national team players would stay in the Italian leagues during the off-season. He mentioned that Matej Cernic, who played for Fakel Novi Urengoi in Russia this past season, was one player who did not. Coach stated that he personally did not have a problem if team members did not play in the Italian league.

Coach Hugh McCutcheon, the head coach of the USA National team also offered some insightful comments regarding the future. Another reporter inquired why Sean Rooney did not have substantial playing time while playing here in his home town. Sean did substitute in for the setter in a blocking role for a couple of occasions during the two Chicago matches. Coach McCutcheon responded with the fact that Sean is a great athlete and represents the future for US national team. Coach did start Sean for the first couple of matches in Portland and allowed Sean to play most of the sets in those matches. The reason he choose Riley Salmon to start along with Reid Priddy was based on Salmon’s experience and its impact on the team’s passing consistency. Coach stated that Sean is a good passer and was known as a good passer in his NCAA college level but international volleyball is “light years” ahead. McCutcheon once again emphasized that Sean is a great asset and can continue to develop into a key national team player.

Coach McCutcheon was asked if the Korean league that Sean has played in for the past two years was strong enough to develop Sean’s skills to the level he desired. While McCutcheon did not respond regarding the Korean league specifically, he did mention that he understood Sean was talking to 3 or 4 other teams in other leagues. He also offered that he believes Sean realizes that the money is better in indoor volleyball than beach volleyball but that it is a choice for Sean to make regarding whether he wants to play AVP.

Lastly, Coach McCutcheon stated that US players are slightly handicapped in developing to world class volleyball players due to the NCAA rules. In other countries, the college age players are not restricted by NCAA rules on numbers of practices and hours of practice. As a result, the foreign players get more “reps” in at an earlier age and develop faster. This is the reason many of the US players develop at a later age (post-college).

While both coaches are focused on improving their current team, both have an eye on the future...

USA Completes Sweep of Hobbled Italian Team, 3-0

2007-06-25T13:14:00.000-05:00

I am capturing this article in my blog since I will eventually be moving the article off of the home page.

The US National Team completed their home sweep of the Italians in World League play Saturday evening in front of 3,720 fans in Chicago. The scores were 25-19, 30-28 and 25-23. The Asics Junior National Championship tournament also being held in Chicago provided an additional source of fans from both local and out-of-town junior players and their parents. Pockets of junior players could be seen throughout the crowd, some still in their team uniform shirts.

The Team USA starting rotation included three different players tonight compared to their starting rotation on Friday night’s match. Kevin Hansen, who saw action in the 4th set Friday night, was the starting setter Saturday. Tom Hoff, who occasionally subbed into Fridays match in a blocking role for a few plays, was one of the starting middles. Hoff replaced David Lee. Lastly, Clay Stanley who was only used as a serving specialist Friday night was the starting opposite, replacing Gabe Gardner.

On the Italian side, Alessandro Farina, the Italian starting libero Friday night, was unable to play Saturday night. Prior to the match, Farina felt disoriented and nearly passed out. There was no prognosis on his condition at the post-match press conference. In his place, Alessandro Paparoni became the starting libero. This impacted the Italian offensive power Saturday night as Paparoni was a key attacker with 14 kills on Friday night.

The first set was close for the first ten points with the last tie score being at 6-6. Clay Stanley and Reid Priddy kills began to stretch out the lead to a 3 or 4 point spread. Team USA put together a run of points resulting in an Italian time out with the score 20-17. Reid Priddy put together back-to-back aces moving the score to 22-17. The first ace was shanked while the second one hit the floor untouched between two players. Coach Montali performed a double sub with Matteo Martino replacing Alberto Cisolla and Mauro Gavutto replacing Lorenzo Perazzolo. Priddy’s next serve resulted in an out-of-system free ball back to the US side and a Riley Salmon kill, 23-17. Tom Hoff ended the set with a quick, 25-19. Statistically, the US hit .380 and Italy .180. Both teams had only two serving errors with the US getting one ace. Clay Stanley had seven kills with a .550 hitting percentage.

The second set was the best set of the match. After the US jumped to a 3-0 lead, the next several minutes of play resulted in side outs or two point runs. Italy tied the set at 16-16 when Priddy was called on a back-row attack while attempting a roll show on an out-of-system set. For the next couple of rally’s both team seemed to lose focus as they were standing around letting balls go unpursued and resulting in a several free balls back to each other. The score was tied again when Kevin Hansen attempted to bring an overpass serve receive back over the net and was called for a lift, 21-21. Coach McCutcheon called a time out just before the up official signaled for serve. After a Millar kill, Giordano Mattera surprised the US with a dump with no US blockers up, 22-22. Italy had the first three attempts at set point, 23-24, 24-25 and 25-26. An Italian mental mistake resulted in a 26-26 score when after making a good dig on a Hoff quick attack, they let the dig drop to the floor within a few feet of several players. Clay Stanley put the match away with back-to-back kills, 30-28. The US maintained its .550 hitting percentage while Italy improved to .350. The US had a cumulative 2 aces to 8 service errors and Italy had a total of 5 service errors with no aces. USA had 5 blocks and 12 digs. Team Italy has 2 blocks and 5 digs. Another notable difference was 10 Italian ball handling errors versus 5 for the US. Clay Stanley had 10 kills in the second set.

David Lee started for Ryan Millar in the third set. Christian Savani and Cisolla kept Italy in the match with their timely kills. After the technical time out, Kevin Hansen would not be given the serve signal until he realized the up official was asking him to tuck in his shirt tail. Once he complied his was signaled for serve. Cisolla’s strong play, assisted by an Andrea Sala block resulted in Italy taking a 13-10 lead. The US charged back and tied the score at 15-15 with two Riley Salmon aces. After being tied at 17-17 and 19-19, the US blocked Cisolla twice resulting in a 21-19 lead and an Italian time out. After exchanging points, a missed serve by both teams resulted in a 24-23 score. Riley Salmon’s roll serve ended up with Tom Hoff stuff blocking Savani for match point. Cumulative stats for the US: .440 hitting, 4 aces to 10 service errors, 14 digs and 10 blocks. Stats for Italy: .330 hitting, 0 aces to 8 service errors, 9 digs and 4 blocks.

In the post-match press conference, Captain Tom Hoff was asked about the significant improvement in service errors compared to Friday night. It was noted that many of tonight’s serves were more of a role shot versus a full hard swing. Hoff said that the team discussed their Friday night service errors and agreed to focus on improving Saturday night. That focus resulted in a reduction of 7 errors (10 down from 17) with six of them coming in the second set. Coach McCutcheon stated the general instruction is to swing away if they have a great toss but they should control their serves with a point of getting them in if the toss is not ideal. They believed their block could protect them if their half speed serves were in bounds.

I will share more of the non-match related press conference notes in a separate article.

USA Looks Strong Against Young Italian Team During FIVB World League Chicago Opener

2007-06-22T18:25:00.000-05:00

I am capturing this article in my blog since I will eventually be moving the article off of the home page.

USA Volleyball has strongly encouraged me to write an article about my coverage of the match. For what it is worth, here is my first ever match coverage…

Tonight’s match was held at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center at Chicago State University. The USA vs. Italy World League match was the first sporting event to be held in the brand new center. It has only been open for about a month and the only other use was for Chicago State’s recent graduation ceremony. The facility was beautiful and allowed one whole side of the court to be within feet of the action.

The first two sets ended in the same score 25-21 USA. In the first set, it was 8-6 at the first time out. Reid Priddy delivered back-to-back aces to stretch the lead. The US maintained a steady 4 to 6 point lead throughout the rest of the match. Clay Stanley subbed in as a serving specialist at the 17-12 mark but no fireworks were generated. Statistics wise, both teams had 5 service errors but the US had two aces to none for Italy. Star player, Alberto Cisolla had three of those 5 service errors in this first set. The US hit a blistering .640 compared to a respectable .460 for Italy.

The second set was fairly tight until the 16-16 point. A Gardner high hands kill was followed by a Millar block resulting from bringing down an Italian roll shot using his high hang time. This generated energy for the US as they widened the lead and maintained it for the rest of the set. Tom Hoff was subbed in for Brandon Taliaferro while the US was serving. This paid off with a Hoff-Lee stuff block the very next play. The set ended with a Priddy tool shot. Once again both teams had the same number of service errors (10 each). The difference was USA having four aces to go with their service errors. Italy had no aces.

The third set started out strong for the US with a 2-0 and 6-3 lead. During the second point of the set, the up official called a replay during the middle of the action. He had seen Alberto Cisolla take a knee to the head during a scramble for a deflected ball. The US was surprised that the official had stopped action before the completion of the point but dropped any protest. Gabe Gardner responded with an ace during the replay. I guess the old saying, “the ball never lies” worked out for the US this time. Alberto Cisolla and Allesandro Paparoni started getting hot for Italy and the digging and blocking was significantly better than the last two sets. Italy had 10 digs in the third set alone. Late in the set, the US block started to dominate bringing the US back to a 21-21 tie. Each team sided out until Italy finished off the set with a hard kill ricocheting off a US back row player. Sean Rooney, the local favorite, was subbed into the match in a blocking role for one play. Riley Salmon was quickly subbed back in during the next rotation. Italy had 15 kills and the previously mentioned 10 digs. However, they still had 0 aces to their now 15 service errors. The US had 14 kills and added a fifth ace to their 15 service errors.

In the final set, Italy jumped to a lead including an 8-13 lead during a streak of serve-receive problems for the US. Kevin Hansen was subbed in at setter at the 5-7 mark. As with the last set, the Italian digging and blocking had improved. The US tied up at 15-15 once again using back-to-back stuff blocks. It was here I noticed that Italy was using a short server whenever Reid Priddy was in the back row. When I asked Coach Montali about the short serve, he said it was intentional. It impacted the ability of Priddy to get ready for his back-row attack and allowed the Italian middle to read their blocking assignments. Clay Stanley was brought in as the serving specialist once again and delivered two aces tying the setup at 19-19. Alberto Cisolla and Allesandro Paparoni contributed kills but the US fought back to a 24-24 tie with a quick attach by David Lee and a Salmon kill. The US jumped ahead 25-24 but a Priddy service error tied it up again. It was Priddy throughout the last few plays. He was called for over the net when he contacted a ball being set by the Italian setter but delivered two back-to-back kills to make up for it. The final score was 29-27.

During the post-match press conference, Coach Montali mentioned that he has four players currently not traveling due to injuries. As a result he had several younger players on the roster and starting. Coach believed this contributed to their slow start as the players were getting adjusted to playing with their teammates and against the tough US competition. When Coach was asked whether Pool B was the toughest World League pool this year, he smiled and agreed that it was.

Coach McCutcheon opened the US press conference by stating that a win over Italy is always a good win. Coach McCutcheon also indicated that he thought Pool B was the toughest World League Pool this year but did not speculate whether the 2nd place team from Pool B was most likely to receive the Wild Card position to advance to the final round. It was his experience that the wild card was just that, a wild card and there seemed to be no consistent rationale behind the selection. Tom Huff stated that during the third set, the Italian hitting and digging had improved but the US should have been prepared for that. It took them awhile to adjust not getting the kills that had during the first two sets. Lastly, Sean Rooney was asked about his old high school who had recently won their fourth Illinois state boy’s volleyball championship. Sean was a senior in high school when Wheaton-Warrenville South won their first. Sean said he knew of their victory and recently spoke with his old high school coach.

OK, that is enough for my first ever sports story…. Please feel free to provide me any feedback.

Middle Hitter

Starting Up the Blog Again???

2006-10-28T21:50:00.000-05:00

Wow, it has been since July since I last posted. There was a lot of volleyball action but no time to sit down and write. So much for the off-season.

I really enjoyed the World League matches in Minneapolis. I got to take some great photos from my floor (press pass) position. I even created the first Middle Hitter quiz using some of the photos. I was able to meet a few of my USAV email contacts face-to-face. It is always a pleasure to finally meet someone you correspond with. I happened to be staying at the same hotel as the teams and coaches (it wasn't planned) It was hot as #$@% in Minneapolis with temperatures reaching 100 plus degrees. Sure glad the walk from the hotel to the matches was via the indoor walkways built to protect people from the COLD.

Using my press pass, I was able to attend the post match press conferences. I brought my video camera but wasn't really prepared the first night. I wasn't sure how it worked. However, the second night, I had prepared a few questions for the players and coach. It was interesting to see the individual player’s personalities. Very few volleyball fans know anything about the players and therefore find it difficult to identify with them, discover a favorite and be able to follow their playing careers. Men's volleyball is not football or basketball (understatement intended)!

A couple of good things have occurred this fall. The volleyball community is starting to respond and assisting middle hitter in providing content to share with the rest of the volleyball community. A few examples of contributions include but are not limited to: providing names/teams of players in past JO All Tournament teams, providing a home video of the 2006 JO 18 Open Championship match and most recently, some pre-season NCAA video from a recent Canadian tournament. I allow the contributor to choose whether they wish to be acknowledged or remain anonymous. I am hoping this practice of sharing will continue and even expand during this upcoming season. I hope to have DI, DII, DIII and NAIA video offerings.

I have the FAB50, JO Medals and JO All-Tournament databases all updated and ready for the next updates next spring. I will be using the same database format for the 2007 Commitments. That way I can input the names and info and develop several reports. I am holding off inputting names until after the first National Letter of Intent (NLI) signing date on November 9th. Then I will input the confirmed signings along with some of the rumor mill names.

The 2007 season will also include a DI news section. I received enough comments and requests that I decided to go with it. The challenge will be how to keep up with all of the updates when DI is the busiest of the schools that have regular press releases. I am preparing an email to go to the Sports Information Directors (SID) to see if I can get them to send me the headline and url in an email when they release something (kind of like copying me on a press release). If a large majority of them could do that, it would save me a lot of time.

OK, it is time to go to bed. Maybe I will be motivated to write more often.

Guess I'm Not a True Blogger

2006-07-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

Oh well, it has been over two months since my last post. Lots of things have been happening but I have not taken the time to write about them. Where should I start?

Junior Olympic Nationals - The national tournament has come and gone again. As usual, the "Cali" teams dominate the older age groups. A few different Midwest and east coast teams did make the gold brackets this year. A few of the past year powerhouses seemed to be down this year and didn't make much of a showing. The JO's are always something to see. Court after court with teams from all over the US and a couple of countries/territories. Rivalries and friendships are made and they look forward to seeing each other "next year". For the top 17 year olds, it’s all "where are the scouts". "Is that really Al Scates and Marv Dunphy?" At the 16's level, the scouts are just getting names and making notes to look at them next year. Of course, the scouts are also looking for a few extra pickups in the 18's. The DII, DIII and NAIA schools still get a few players in the summer. The DI schools attempt to get some players to "walk-on" at their school. With only 4.5 scholarships, they do not have a lot to work with. A player with great grades really helps out the coach, especially at the DIII level.

Men's Volleyball on TV - I finally dumped Comcast cable because I have been waiting for two years for them to offer CSTV. I finally got DIRECTV and had CSTV immediately. I enjoyed watching the EIVA, MIVA and MPSF championship matches live and the semi-final round of the NCAA Final Four live on ESPNU. Got them taped for future viewing…

World League - The world league started last week. I watched both matches live on CSTV. The USA had a few moments but didn't look like a #5 in the world ranking. Lots of errors, especially in serving. It was disappointing to say the least. Reid Priddy was the highlight of the USA team. I did notice the Mizuno practice jersey he had during his warm-up and post game interview. I gotta get one of them. Looking at the Mizuno USA website, I do not see it listed. However, looking at the Japan Mizuno site, I am pretty sure I saw it there. I need to get a Mizuno rep to find a couple for me. I am sure the top clubs in the US would love to have those practice jerseys.

The USA plays in Japan this weekend. The matches will be shown on TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting Station) but I don't see anyway I will be able to get it. I did not see it in the international offerings of DIRECTV. If I did, I would be tempted to purchase the Japan package for one month to watch and DVR the matches.

Next weekend, I am driving up to Minneapolis to watch the World League matches in-person. That should be great viewing and hopefully, they will win both of them. I plan on getting some action videos and perhaps a few quick video clips/interviews of some of the players. I am thinking about keeping the questions simple and ask them about their high school and/or club days. I’ll see if I have the nerve to ask.

Video - I was able to get a hold of the CSTV 20 second commercial for the World League matches and get approval to post it on middlehitter.com. I really appreciate the help I got from my USAV contacts on that one. I have a question on whether CSTV will allow a highlights video of the past two Poland matches to be posted (on CSTV, USAV or middlehitter.com). I would think those who cannot get CSTV would love to view a few highlights.

AVP – This Saturday, I am going to the AVP here in Chicago. I am bringing my camera and plan on taking some photos. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and I can get some good shots. I’ll try to catch some of the recent college graduates who are playing if they survive to the Saturday rounds. I see Rooney and Hildebrand are playing on Friday. Check out middlehitter.com sometime Sunday or Monday to see the results.

Alright, I have gone on too long but I had a lot to say because I waited too long. Maybe I will have some day-by-day reports from Minneapolis.

College Season Over, HS & Club Season Championships Time

2006-05-19T06:18:00.000-05:00

It looks like once a month is going to be my frequency unless I free up some time. Although the college season has ended, the boy’s high school and club summer season’s still have about 4 to 6 more weeks.

I am hoping on making it over to Hoffman Estates to watch some of the IHSA (Illinois) high school playoff matches, as I have the past 6 years. The “elite eight” weekend is the first week of June. I am going to apply to the IHSA to see if they will provide me their official championship match video afterwards. They have a form and are asking a fee but the form appears to be for broadcasting the match on a cable TV station. I assume this would be a local access station. Since I do not generate any revenue from Middle Hitter, I will ask them for a copy for no charge. I would also agree to delay the broadcast until after the local cable stations have broadcast their copy. This would prevent a posting of the video on middlehitter.com from potentially reducing the cable stations viewers. I will not get my hopes up too high but you never know unless you ask. There is also a chance of getting a parent/fan home video version.

I am a little disappointed in the slow due diligence and approval process by my USAV contact regarding the posting of the DIII Molten championship match video. I have the host schools approval, the UC-Santa Cruz head coach approval and the AVCA approval. I have not heard from Juniata’s head coach but based on some of the rumors/information posted on VolleyTalk, I think I know why and do not expect to hear from Ken. The only hold up now is from my USAV contact. Hopefully, the approval and video will arrive next week. It will take me awhile to process to video into individual sets and convert to an internet friendly file.

However, the DIII Molten video now has competition. I received notice from California Baptist that the NAIA volleyball tournament director has approved my posting of the NAIA National Invitational Tournament Championship sponsored by Tachikara. The only thing we are waiting for is the Cal Baptist SID to get back into town and forward the video. I sent my initial request for the video a week later (the tournament was a week later) than my request for the DIII Molten video and it appears, the NAIA has a quicker approval process. The DIII Molten may have to wait until after the posting of the NAIA championship match.

I now have two schools who have asked to have information posted on the Recruiting page, both are NAIA schools. I have been reviewing the NCAA rules on recruiting to see of there are any risks of an NCAA school using the page to post information on their programs but am having a difficult time interpreting the language. It appears that there should be no problem since Middle Hitter is not a recruiting service but I may have to send an inquiry to the NCAA for clarification. I really don’t want to get a coach, especially in a new program, into NCAA problems because of simple program information postings on the web site.

Until next time….

Commitments, Recruiting and MORE VIDEO

2006-04-21T11:39:00.000-05:00

Wow, it has almost been a month since my last entry. I am glad the growth of men's volleyball is not dependant on my posting frequency! On my last post, I stated I was going to comment on the Loyola vs. Ball State match. But since I posted the entire match video on the website, I felt that no one really needed my thoughts. They could just watch the match themselves and create their own opinion.

I am trying to get some video of the NCAA DIII tournament in which Juniata won it all again. I think it would be great exposure for DIII volleyball from both a recruiting and fans standpoint. As we all know, the only men's volleyball we get to watch on TV is about 6 matches a year plus more in Olympic years. I can at least take my pick to drive to two different schools to watch DI.

The signed commitment page has had several updates over the past week. Now that many coaches have some time, they are responding to requests for updates. I need to email a few more coaches to get additional updates. The commitment page had the highest number of hits this past week but I just posted a new video and it will eventually take over as the most popular destination on the site (as all the video has been).

I have had an idea of a recruiting page(s) on the site to provide additional program and school details to the HS athletes that visit the site. I just haven't had the time to create the pages because of all of the news updates. Now that the seasons are winding down, the news is slowing down creating more time for new pages. Cardinal Stritch has just sent me additional recruiting materials and I am almost finished with my first version of the recruiting pages. I am sure the pages will evolve over time in format and material available but I need to get started somewhere. The initial pages may be uninspiring and kludgy but at least the recruiting material will be available to the HS athletes.

Lastly, I am hoping to get some additional USA Men's team video to help promote the 2006 World League matches this summer. USAV has been fairly responsive in sharing what video clips they already have. I am crossing my fingers that they will share some end line video of more recent USA matches to share with the volleyball community. I think they should use the video to advertise the event at the larger boy's and girl's volleyball tournaments, all the way through the JO National events. Keep checking and maybe I'll have some posted in the future.

Website Updates, Comments & World League

2006-03-24T13:30:00.000-06:00

The update process of the news links has been hectic as expected. It is taking about 60 to 120 minutes to search, grab the headline and URL, move the existing front page news to the archive news and then making the new links. I just keep reminding myself that the season ends in 5 or 6 weeks. This brings up a new challenge, how I continue to get younger kids to view the DII, DIII and NAIA school websites once the news dies out. I have been thinking about asking the schools if they wanted to have a little ad with something about their team and school. I guess I will worry about this when I get to the end of the season.

I received my first blog comment this past week. It is good to see other viewers sharing their thoughts and experiences on the topic of men's/boy's volleyball growth. I happen to know the commenter who is both a great volleyball player and a great person. I hope that other blog readers share their thoughts and comments.

I have picked up a secondary mission with www. Middlehitter.com which is related to my main mission of men's/boy's volleyball growth. This new mission is attendance at this summer 2006 World League matches held in the US. The locations selected for the matches will make it hard to get boys attendance based on the hotbeds of junior boys volleyball. The best place for a boost of attendance is from the Midwest to the Minneapolis matches on July 29th and 30th. It would be great if a bus load or two from Milwaukee, Chicago and perhaps St. Louis could travel to Minneapolis during the World League weekend. I am going to approach some of the junior club coaches to see if they are interested in organizing such a trip. An alternative approach is to ask my contacts with Summit and TPC (USAV Adult Open teams) if they are interested in sponsoring the trips. They could probably use it as a fund raising activity by adding a $20 charge to the cost of the trip. This cost would cover their time for getting the bus, hotel, etc... organized and the money could go towards their Nationals trip expenses.

Another idea tied to the World League in Minneapolis, is to have the local USAV region setup an open gym on Sunday. The matches are on Saturday and Sunday evening. It would be great to get the out-of-town crowd out of the hotels (and the Mall of America) to a gym for some vb.

Well, I am signing off for today. I am attending the Loyola versus Ball State match tonight and should provide my match report later this week.

Decline in Men's VB?

2006-03-10T19:20:00.000-06:00

I just provided my opinion on the subject in a VT post. I am going to post it here before it gets knocked off the page with other threads:

It would be nice to see some fans who prefer to give back or participate in growing the sport for men versus JUST sharing their opinions. I am sure there are many VTers that do coach, ref or volunteer but I sure hope the most outspoken members aren't showing their attitude to today's youth. If someone feels that mens VB is falling apart, will only shrink, etc... then it obvious they are not helping out with todays vb youth. If they would, then they would see the passion, especially in the younger kids (16 and under).

The younger kids just cannot get enough volleyball. They cant sit still between matches, they will end up playing some game on an empty court or in a corner somewhere (probably hitting people trying to watch the current matches). They love to watch the older kids play. I remember taking a 14's team to go to the gym where the 18's were playing in the same tournament. They loved the power they saw and would be amazed when someone would dig a blast inside the 10' line. They loved to watch Sean Rooney during warm ups because he would almost always bounce the ball into the upper balcony where they were sitting.

Unfortunately, as they become juniors and especially seniors, reality starts setting in for most of them. They aren't getting the letters or emails from one of the 21 DI schools like a small number of the taller/higher vertical reach players. Their attitude changes and a few drop out. One thing that keeps them interested is the fact that club season will provide them a better chance to be their high school star or at least get decent playing time. There are less than 400 DI spots on rosters and less than 100 scholarships. They love the game but realize they aren't going to play at what they think is the next level.

Sadder is the fact that there are 50+ other schools that have varsity volleyball programs and many of the kids don't know very much if anything about those programs. The schools don't have the budget to recruit. Just think if more of these players got into varsity programs improving their teams overall playing level. They may not be ready for MSPF but their caliber of play would certainly rise. Just think of the kids behind the blue curtain or sitting on the bench of the DI schools. What if they saw other schools as an opportunity to start right away and start the building of a program? The talent off the DI bench would improve mens volleyball if they were at other schools. Once again, they may not be ready for MSPF but if enough of them moved over, they would start to be competitive, the programs would get more notoriety and hopefully draw new talent every year.

Sorry, time to get off the soap box. But if you want to complain about the "sorry" state of mens vb, then get off your duff and volunteer in some manner in actively supporting boys volleyball. You might actually see a brighter future!