U.S. men’s volleyball beats Tunisia as regulars sit

LONDON — When Alan Knipe succeeded Hugh McCutcheon as coach of the U.S. men’s volleyball team, he inherited a gold-medal winning program and a boatload of pressure.

The U.S. has endured an up-and-down quadrennial since winning at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but its straight-sets victory over winless Tunisia on Monday offered more proof it could be peaking at an opportune time.

And Knipe continued to put his own stamp on the program, sitting regulars David Lee, Clayton Stanley and Reid Priddy for the 25-15, 25-19, 25-19 victory with a Wednesday quarterfinal match against Italy already secured.

That decision stood in stark contrast to McCutcheon’s choice from Sunday night. The now-U.S. women’s coach played his regulars in a victory over Turkey that had no bearing on quarterfinal pairings, and setter Lindsey Berg suffered a lower left leg injury that has her status uncertain.

Just like McCutcheon, Knipe said he found his decision easy.

“You want to make sure we have our team physically in the best shape we have going into the quarterfinals,” Knipe said. “We felt the best thing to do was to get some guys who have taken a lot of swings and played a lot of sets get some downtime. It’s not like the guys who played [Monday] haven’t played well in World League, so we’re not surprised.”

Sean Rooney, David McKienzie and David Smith started in the regulars’ places. McKienzie, who had been used as situational server in previous matches, finished with 14 spikes and two aces. For someone who didn’t make the 2008 gold-medal team, Monday served as a small dose of redemption.

“That was fueling my fire to want to come back,” McKienzie said. “One of the things about a good team is being deep. We can put whoever put on the court and win matches handily. That’s a credit to us.”

Knipe said he would return to his regulars against Italy.

“We’ve established roles,” he said. “And we’ve established depth.”

The U.S. enters the quarterfinals as a top-seeded team after going 4-1 in pool play and posting three straight-sets victories. Still, there’s a sense the team, which entered the Olympics ranked fifth in the world, is being overlooked, particularly as defending gold medalists.

Knipe doesn’t care. He’ll just keep trying to push the right buttons and focus on Italy.

“They’re talented,” he said. “They cause you a lot of problems with their aggressive serving. You’re going to have to deal with not always having your setter in the perfect position. We’re a lot better now than we were earlier in the summer at that, so it should be a good match.”

In the other quarterfinal matches: Bulgaria plays Germany, Poland faces Russia and Argentina plays Brazil.

kcjohnson@tribune.com

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