Italians Sweep to Volleyball Victory Over Americans

U.S. national volleyball Coach Fred Sturm is looking for the silver lining.

Despite a sweep to the world’s best team, Italy, Sturm found his silver.

The Italians (2-1) scored a 15-13, 15-11, 17-15 World League victory over the Americans (2-1) in front of 3,229 Friday at the Sports Arena. And when it was over, the question was asked.

Can you guys beat the Italians?

Bryan Ivie nodded his head yes.

Eric Sato nodded his head yes.

As for Sturm, his silver lining came in the simple pleasures, making the Italians sweat a bit before winning.

“There were many encouraging things about the match” he said.

Among them:

* Serving. “Italy had more passing problems, more often than I’ve seen them in the past,’ Sturm said.

* Blocking defense. “Our blocking defense gave us enough point-scoring opportunities to win the match,” Sturm said.

Mark Arnold led the U.S. with eight blocks.

* Rallying from behind.

The U.S. worked from a deficit all night, but nearly overcame a six-point deficit in the first game, a 14-9 deficit in the second.

“We play our best when we’re in the hole,” Sturm said. “That seems to be a characteristic of this team.”

And if it wasn’t enough for Sturm to find encouraging signs, Italian Coach Julio Velasco noticed a marked difference in the U.S. team that went 21-37 last year.

“I think (the U.S. play is) better this year,” Velasco said. “Last year’s team made more mistakes.”

Sturm conceded that some credit in the match’s outcome had to be given to the defending World League champions and gold medalists from the World Championships and the Goodwill Games.

“Something that helped Italy is they made a lot of good plays (on U.S. scoring opportunities),” Sturm said.

Many of those opportunities came when the U.S. had a chance to either tie or score points that could have drastically altered the outcome.

“I don’t think we played up to our potential and we still could’ve won any one of those games,” said Ivie, who had a team-high 27 kills.

Sturm said before the game it was an opportunity to find out where the team stood.

“Italy, unquestionably, is a better opponent than the Japanese,” Sturm said.

The Japanese took the Americans to five games in the WLV opener and even led, 2-1, in that match. But Sturm said his team is better than it was two weeks ago against Japan.

“I think we’ve improved in some areas, our overall consistency,” he said. “We’ll play well for a longer period of time.”

In this case, it was against a better team.

“It’s really important for us to serve tough,” Sturm said before the match. “It’s a calculated risk. We don’t want to miss, then have to serve easy.”

Serving helped the U.S. get back in Game 1. The Italians looked as if they would turn the game into a rout, jumping to an 8-2 lead. After a U.S. timeout, the U.S. scored four times on an overpass off the serve. The U.S. pulled to 8-8 and 9-9. Italy rallied for a 14-9 lead, but Italian mistakes and a kill by Scott Fortune made it 14-13 before the Italians closed out the game.

The Americans continued to play tough in Game 2 with nothing to show for it. Neither team led by more than two points, and the U.S. held a lead at 9-8 and was tied at 11 before the Italians again closed out the game.

The U.S. tied Game 3 at 10, then endured 15 sideouts before Ivie’s block and Allen Allen’s kill gave the U.S. a 12-10 lead. The Italians tied it, 12-12 and advanced point by point until they reached 17 as Luca Bernardi spiked the ball between Ivie and Samuelson.

The U.S. was winless against Italy last year, losing four times by 3-1 margins and another, 3-0. Italy’s last victory came at the Goodwill Games, a 15-5, 13-15, 15-12, 15-8 decision.