U.S. battles for bronze

The U.S. men’s volleyball team, including former UC Irvine All-American middle blocker David Smith, will play Russia for the bronze medal on Sunday at 5:30 a.m. PDT in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Team USA (4-3), guided by former UCI men’s coach John Speraw, for whom Estancia High product Matt Fuerbringer is an assistant coach, was defeated, 30-28, 26-28, 25-22, 15-9, by Italy in Friday’s semifinals.

Russia (5-2) was swept by Brazil in the other semifinal Friday.

“It may not be the summer of gold, but [Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross, who earned a bronze medal for the U.S. in women’s beach volleyball on Wednesday] set the tone with their resilience to win bronze,” Fuerbringer posted on his Facebook account after the semifinal loss Friday. “We will battle for ours!”

The U.S. women’s volleyball team also won a bronze medal on Saturday with a four-game victory over the Netherlands.

“Getting a chance to win a medal at the Olympic Games is pretty dang cool,” said U.S. men’s outside hitter Taylor Sander, a former BYU All-American who resides in Huntington Beach. “We still have a chance to do that. It’s a bummer it’s not the right color, but we’re going to try as hard as we can to get that third place.”

The Americans and Russia have two common opponents in the Olympics. Russia defeated Poland in five games in pool play, while Team USA swept Poland for its fourth straight victory in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

In another quarterfinal, Russia defeated a Canada team that had swept the U.S. unit in a Pool A match.

The U.S. and Russia finished third in their six-team pools to advance to the quarterfinals.

Smith, who helped UCI earn the first of its four NCAA championships in 2007, has played in one game in Rio, producing one kill in a pool sweep of Mexico on Monday.

If victorious, Smith would join four other Newport-Mesa athletes to earn medals in Rio.

In addition to the bronze medal won by Ross, a Costa Mesa resident who starred at Newport Harbor High, Newport Beach residents Maddie Musselman, a Corona del Mar High alumnus, Kaleigh Gilchrist, a Newport Harbor graduate, and Maggie Steffens, the MVP of the women’s Olympic tournament, helped Team USA win the gold-medal game against Italy on Friday.

— From staff reports

— From staff reports