USA outplayed Australia in straight sets and showed excellent teamwork to improve their win-loss ratio in the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship
Bydgoszcz, Poland, September 13, 2014 – USA completed their mission to overcome Australia in straight sets (25-15, 25-19, 25-20), coming out with a strong commitment to improve their win-loss ration in Pool E of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship at the Luczniczka Hall on Saturday.
Key Points
• USA are on a four-match winning streak.
• Thomas Edgar topped all scorers with 13 points, but was the lone double-digit scorer for the Australian side.
• Matthew Anderson was USA’s top scorer with 13 points, followed by Taylor Sander with 11 points.
• USA served eight aces in the match, Australia only had one.
USA started the first set with a four-point advantage at 6-2. Australia did not allow the USA to run ahead as opposite Thomas Edgar scored five out of the six points to power an 8-6 advantage for Australia at the first technical timeout. The attack tandem of Matthew Anderson and Taylor Sander gave back the lead to USA 16-10 at the second technical break.
On the other side, only Edgar was filling in the gaps that made it difficult for Australia to stop USA, who carried the momentum until the end of the set with an astounding advantage 25-15.
USA led throughout the early stages of the second set but Australia fought back to tie the score at 12-all and the eventual lead takeover 14-13. Then the chase began as both teams made a point-by-point exchange heading towards the end of the set. USA responded with feisty attack that disoriented the Australian defence to take back the lead. Matthew Anderson scored two points for the eventual set win 25-19.
The third set started evenly as both sides traded points. USA managed to pull ahead at 11-7 after some good serving and Australian unforced errors, with Anderson taking a chunk of the points to bring the lead up at 14-9 and the final quick attack from David Lee to sound the buzzer for the second technical timeout 16-12.
After the break, Australia had some superb run with their spikes that closed the gap to within two points. However, setter Micah Christenson patiently ran their offence to set-up his attackers Anderson and Sander. Slowly, USA reached the end of the set 25-20 with a kill from Anderson 25-20.