US men beat Russia to reach Olympic volleyball final

BEIJING – The US men’s volleyball team beat Russia in a five-set semifinal Friday, assuring the Americans their first Olympic volleyball medal since 1992. They will play for the title Sunday against the winner of the Brazil-Italy semifinal. Russia plays the loser for the bronze. “I came alive," said David Lee, who accounted for the final four of his team’s points. “All match long I didn’t think I played my best volleyball. I got it going in the end." The Americans won 25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13 and remained undefeated in Beijing despite playing without their coach for three matches. “David Lee just came up with some huge blocks—MVP right there," US player Reid Priddy said. “That was huge, huge for us." This marks the first time since the 1984 Los Angeles Games that both the US men and women will play for the volleyball gold. The women face Brazil for the title Saturday. The men won gold in 1984 and 1988 before winning the bronze in Barcelona. The closest they’ve come since was fourth in Athens in 2004. “We’ve got so much motivation, we’ve got motivation coming out of our ears," said setter Lloy Ball, who is playing in his fourth Olympics. Russia was the bronze medalist in Athens and the silver medalist in 2000. The team won gold in 1964, 1968 and 1980. In Beijing, the Russians went 4-1 in preliminary pool play. In a tight first set, the US went up 17-16 on Stanley Clayton’s ace, then added another point on Sergey Grankin’s errant spike. The US won it when Maxim Mikhaylov’s spike went long. Russia took a 16-13 lead in the second after Alexander Kosarev’s block. But the United States made three straight points in the end to take the set. Priddy scored with a pair of successful spikes, before Yury Berezkho’s spike went into the net to give the US the set. Alexey Kuleshov’s block put Russia ahead 17-13 in the third set. The Russians extended the lead to 20-15, but the United States rallied again to even it at 24 before Russia won on Alexander Volkov’s block. That led to a tense fourth set. Russia was up 19-16 and went on to win it on Sergey Tetyukhin’s spike, sending the pro-Russian crowd on its feet. Priddy’s spike put the US in front 6-3 in the deciding set, but the Russians kept pace and briefly went ahead until Lee’s block made it 13-12 for the US team. Lee led the rest of the way. Captain Tom Hoff called the match an “awesome team performance." “The thing that really sticks to me is out last break. We had some confusion, the guys were pretty ampped," he said. That’s when coach Hugh McCutcheon took charge. “Hugh came over to us and said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do on this serve,’ It had a great calming effect on us." After winning all five matches in the preliminary round, the US men beat Serbia in the quarterfinals 3-2 to advance. And they did it despite considerable adversity. Before competition started, McCutcheon was called away from practice. His father-in-law, Todd Bachman, had been fatally stabbed at a Beijing tourist site. Bachman’s wife, Barbara, was badly hurt. McCutcheon is married to the Bachman’s daughter, former Olympian Elisabeth “Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon, who played for the US women in Athens. The coach left the team to be with his family and missed three matches before his mother-in-law was taken back to the United States by air ambulance. Assistant Ron Larsen was interim head coach. The US players have marked their shoes with the initials of Todd and Barbara Bachman during games. “Obviously we’ve been through a lot. We’ve had to endure some tough times," Priddy said. “But we’re happy that our coach is here with is. And we’re happy that Barbara is better." – AP