USA – Venezuela
The Americans, many of them candidates to replace those who will be retiring after the London Olympics, took advantage of a sub-par performance of the South Americans to take the victory 25-17, 25-19, 25-12.
The winners had a well balanced offensive led by Daniel McDonnell and Taylor Sander each with 12 points, while Antonio Ciarelli added 10. Venezuela’s captain Kervin Piñerua had 11 as the only in player double figures for the losers.
USA’s coach Shawn Patchell commented: “We have worked hard to achieve this kind of victory. Our start was not the best and I was concerned but we improved a lot and after the first set our serves were accurate and a key to the victory. This is a good group of young players who are gaining confidence and can improve their game even more.”
Venezuela’s coach Roberto Garcia said: “We congratulate United States for the victory. For us this match didn’t exist because we didn’t play at all. We were not even to a 20 percent of our performance in the Olympic Qualifier in Japan. Our reception was bad. I hope they can think about it tonight and recover from it.”
Kevin Piñerua, captain of Venezuela: “We didn’t have our best game. In fact we didn’t play volleyball. Our reception was poor and I hope we will be able to improve in out next matches.”
Kawika Shoji, captain of United States: “Venezuela had a good start and we thought the match would be tougher, but our serves improved a lot and was the key to wake up the team and get the victory.”
