The Olympics provide some of the greatest triumphs in sports, but they can also provide some of the greatest heartbreaks. After an incredible match against top-ranked Poland, Team USA men's volleyball finds itself on the wrong end of the incredible emotions these 17 days provide.
Leading two sets to one with Poland on the ropes, it seemed the United States was on its way to its first Olympic final since 2008. Suddenly, it all flipped, and before they could blink, the Americans were relegated to the bronze medal match a heart-shattering five-set loss.
Entering as the top-ranked team in the world, Poland was looking to finally overcome the ghosts that have haunted it at the Olympic Games for years. Poland had lost in the quarterfinals of the last five Olympic Games until it beat Slovenia to reach the semifinal stage. Now, Poland is in the gold medal match, and it took everything the country had to get there.
The Polish looked down and out against the United States, but showed the resolve and talent that has made them the top team in the world. Down two sets to one and trailing in the fourth, they picked themselves up off the mat, dusted themselves off and came back to force a decisive final set.
Trailing 14-10 in the fifth, the United States had one last shot back. The Americans scored four straight points and dragged themselves back within one. However, Polish superstar and one of the best players on Earth, Wilfredo Leon, did not allow it go any further. Poland found its man and he delivered a ferocious strike that went off a body and landed out of bounds to give Poland its biggest win in 48 years.
Poland's Dominance
Leon — as he almost always is — was the star of the night with 26 kills on 22/41 swings. Alongside Tomasz Fornal (13 points on 12/20 swings) Leon willed his country back into the match and across the finish line. Poland is now guaranteed its first medal — and only second in history — since it won the gold all the way back in 1976.
The U.S. entered as the most efficient offense left in the tournament, while Poland was the least efficient.
It looked like the complete opposite early as Team USA got off to a very slow start and looked completely out of sorts on offense. Not only were the Americans making errors, they could not put anything on the floor. Torey DeFalco, who has been the Americans' best hitter in this tournament, did not score on his first seven swings and could not get anything past a staunch Polish defense.
Poland was absolutely dominant offensively behind its superstar, Leon, who had seven points on 6/9 swings in the first set and Norbert Huber, who had five points on 4/5 swings and a block. As a team, Poland hit 15/30 on swings and even though the Americans got hands on a lot of them, they just could not keep the ball from touching down.
A Shift in Momentum
Heading into Set 2, the Americans had a lot to clean up.
The U.S. had little to no success hitting against Poland's defense on the outside in the first, forcing an adjustment in the second set. The Americans started going down the middle of the floor on offense and it worked beautifully.
Matt Anderson was on fire to start, killing seven of his first 10 swings, while Taylor Averill and Max Holt were lethal in the middle of the floor. Those three helped the U.S. get out to a 21-18 lead in the second, but Poland erased that quickly, sending the set to overtime. Both DeFalco and Anderson missed swings on set point, but the third time was the charm as Aaron Russell came through with the key kill to get the U.S. back in the match with a 27-25 win.
Team USA's head coach, John Sparew, made another huge change in the third set, taking DeFalco off the floor in favor of Thomas Jaeschke. DeFalco was completely off his game at just 4/15 on swings through three and Sparew decided it was time for a change. It turned out to be a sound decision as Jaeschke made an immediate impact with five points on 4/7 swings in the third.
The U.S. held a 13-9 lead in the third set when everything changed in the match. This time it was nothing the U.S. did, but an injury to a Polish player that shook everything up. Poland's libero, Pawel Zatorski, was down for a while with what looked to be a shoulder injury and it seemed as if his night was over. He was able to continue on, but it was clear he was struggling and some of the wind had come out of Poland's sails. Team USA went on a 12-5 run after the injury and closed out the set 25-14 to put itself on the brink of advancing to the gold medal match.
At that point, it seemed Poland was on the ropes, but they were able to brush themselves off and come back to win a wild fourth set in rollercoaster fashion.
The United States held a 21-20 lead late, but Leon would simply not let his country go down. He brought them back into the set, and put them at set point with an ace to make it 24-22. Through four he accounted for 23 points on a .486 hitting percentage.
The U.S. gave Poland everything it had in the fifth, but it was just not enough. The United States men's volleyball team has now missed out on the Olympic final for the fourth straight Games.
A Fight for Bronze
The Americans will still have a chance at bronze. They will face the loser of Italy and France Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
Poland will play the winner of Italy vs. France Aug. 10 at 7 a.m. ET for the men's volleyball gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
The United States will still have an opportunity to compete for a bronze medal later in the Olympics, which would be their third in the last five if they can prevail.
For Poland, this marks the first time since 1976 that they’ve reached the final, winning the gold medal against the Soviet Union in Montreal.
Tomasz Fornal was an absolute wrecking crew for the Poland squad with 13 points, including 12 on the attack. Norbert Huber was just as deadly, with 12 attacking points to his credit in the back-and-forth match.
Wilfredo Leon Venero led all Polish attackers with 22 points at the net in the victory.
Matthew Anderson led the Americans with 23 attacking points, with Aaron Russell earning 18. Thomas Jaeschke and Maxwell Holt each had nine points, with Holt securing two aces in the tight loss.
Poland won the first set and the US won the middle two sets. Poland stormed back to win the fourth set 25-23, setting up a deciding fourth set.
The tight back-and-forth match continued, with Poland pushing ahead 10-7 after a series of miscues by the United States, including a critical net violation that left the American squad in danger of losing the contest.
Fornal served the ball into the net to give the Americans back the ball at 10-8, but responded with an immediately kill to give Poland back their three-point lead.
Undeterred, the United States scored consecutive points to narrow Poland’s lead to one, forcing a timeout by the Polish squad. Poland slowly pushed toward a match point opportunity at 14-10, but the American squad wouldn’t back down, scoring three straight points to keep the match alive.
On the fourth match point, Poland finally prevailed after Leon Venero’s spike was blocked out of bounds, sending Poland to the title match for the first time since 1976 in Montreal.
The final is set for 6 a.m. Saturday. Poland will play either Italy or France with the gold medal on the line.
“We came here to win,” USA coach John Speraw said. “I’m very disappointed.”
You would expect nothing less from a team that aspired to win the Paris Olympics men’s volleyball tournament and the gold medal that comes with it.
Now Poland gets a shot at the gold while the USA goes for bronze against the loser of the later match Wednesday at Paris Arena South 1 between France and Italy.
Speraw and his veterans know the deal. In Rio in 2016, they also lost in the semifinals and had to gird up and beat Russia in five for the bronze medal. In Tokyo in 2021 they didn’t get to the quarterfinals.
The shot at gold was theirs for the taking Wednesday, especially when the Americans led two sets to one and led in the fourth, the last time at 21-20.
But ultimately Poland rallied to win that set and took the upper hand in the fifth to came away with a 25-23, 25-27, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory.
“I’ll have to go back and look at that fourth set, but it’s what happens in these matches when a team is down,” Speraw said. “You’re up 2-1 and a team has nothing to lose at that point and they get very aggressive. And they got very aggressive with their serves and they were successful. And when you have servers like they have who get successful it’s very, very challenging.”
The USA got another fabulous effort from 37-year-old opposite Matt Anderson, whose performance in these Games belies his age. He led with 23 kills, hit .456, had an ace, and made some key digs throughout, finishing with eight.
He agreed with his coach’s assessment.
“That’s what they do. They serve hard and they put us in trouble and we didn’t come up with the points late in that fourth set,” Anderson said.
Aaron Russell had 18 kills and two blocks, Max Holt had nine kills, a block and two aces, and Thomas Jaeschke, who subbed for TJ DeFalco in the third set, finished with nine kills and a block. Taylor Averill had five kills, two blocks and an ace and DeFalco had four kills, hitting .133.
Setter Micah Christenson, who had seven digs, added a block, and libero Erik Shoji had 10 digs.
“It was USA vs. Poland,” said Shoji, who plays professionally in Poland. “We were in for an epic match. Tough how it ended.”
The fourth set was tied 22-22 when Poland’s Wilfredo Leon blasted a kill, aced Shoji and then Poland won on a kill by Tomasz Fornal.
The USA trailed 10-7 in the fifth and was down 14-10 when Jaeschke got a kill, Anderson had a kill from the back-row and got to 14-13 when Leon air mailed a spike attempt.
But Leon ended it with a kill off the block, 22nd of the match. Leon hit .463 and had two blocks and two aces. Norbert Huber had 12 kills, a block and two aces, and Fornal finished with 12 kills and an ace. Bartosz Kurek had nine kills and two blocks.
“I thought we showed a lot of poise in the fifth set because we didn’t have a lot of momentum going into it,” Speraw said. “We were down 14-11 and still gave ourselves an opportunity.
“Leon is very, very good. He had a dip but he came back and played very well in the fifth set.”
Now the USA goes for bronze, which Anderson said simply, “it’s better than nothing. A bronze medal is something that you’re proud to have and proud to win. It’s a medal that you have to win that last match to get it. I don’t want to leave with nothing.”
Shoji agreed.
“It’s physically and mentally exhausting that last match and we have to come back in two days and play,” Shoji said. “We wanted to be playing for a gold and that sucks. But bronze is important and we’re going to do everything we can to win that one.”
Friday’s match against Italy/France is at 4 p.m. local time, 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific.
“It’s one of the great challenges in this event when you have hopes for gold and you’ve got to regroup mentally and go compete,” Speraw said. “We have a day to think about that and a day to recover.
“In Rio part of the devastation was how many opportunities we had and let it slip away. Here we played a great team that played great at the end. Hopefully that allows us to rebound a little bit and get focused on the match.”
The Olympic gold dream of four U.S. men’s volleyball players with Hawaii ties came to an end in a semifinal stunner against Poland on Wednesday, but they still have an opportunity to medal in the Paris Games.
Now it will face Italy for the bronze at 4 a.m. Hawaii time Friday. Italy lost to host France in straight sets Wednesday.
“It’s physically and mentally exhausting,” libero Erik Shoji told USA Volleyball of the task at hand. “We have to come back and play in two days. We want to be fighting for a gold and that sucks, but bronze is important and we’re going to do everything we can to win that one.”
It’s an opportunity for a second career bronze for two Hawaii natives, setter Micah Christenson (Kamehameha, USC) and Shoji (Punahou, Stanford). They medaled at the Rio 2016 Games.
Backup setter Micah Ma‘a (Punahou, UCLA) and middle Taylor Averill (University of Hawaii) are the others on the 12-man roster with Hawaii ties and are going for their first medal.
Shoji led the U.S. with 10 digs against Poland. Averill had five kills on seven swings with two blocks and an ace. Christenson supplied seven digs.
Wilfredo Leon led Poland with 22 kills, two blocks and two aces. Poland led for nearly all of Set 5, including an 8-5 advantage when the teams switched sides. It earned four match points and the U.S. saved two before Leon put the match away with a kill.
The U.S. lost the first set to Poland 23-25, but took the second 27-25. After a dominant 25-14 third set for the Americans, Poland won the fourth set 25-23 again to force a fifth, and then won 15-13.
Matt Anderson and Aaron Russell, who were both on the United States' bronze medal-winning team in Rio in 2016, led the U.S. with 24 and 20 points, respectively. Poland's Wilfredo Leon Venero led his team with 26 points, with the second-leading scorer, Norbert Huber, scoring 15.
Poland, one of the best men's volleyball teams in the world, last won an Olympic gold medal in 1976, its only Olympic medal to date. Poland is guaranteed a gold or a silver in Saturday's final, which will be its best result in 50 years regardless of the final score. Poland will face the winner of the Italy-France semifinal.
Team USA men's volleyball has had mixed results at the Olympics: Despite winning golds in 1984, 1988 and 2008 — and a pair of bronzes in 1992 and 2016 — the Americans don't consistently make it this far. Last Olympics, in Tokyo, the team finished in 10th place.
Team USA will now play Italy, who lost to France in straight sets, in the bronze medal match on Friday. If the U.S. wins, they will earn their sixth-ever Olympic medal.
A Look Ahead: What's Next for Team USA?
With the gold medal dream shattered, the focus now shifts to the bronze medal match. The U.S. men's volleyball team will face Italy, who fell to France in a straight-set defeat, on Friday. A win against Italy would secure Team USA's sixth Olympic medal, marking a significant accomplishment despite the disappointment of falling short of the gold. The team will be looking to bounce back from the loss to Poland and prove their mettle in the bronze medal match. The journey to a medal may not have taken the path they envisioned, but the team remains determined to make the most of the opportunity and finish their Paris Olympic journey on a high note.
