Middle Hitter Blog

The Sears Centre crowd of approximately 4,000 fans saw a much better Team USA effort compared to Friday night resulting in a 3-1 win against the visiting 2010 World League Pool C opponent, Finland. Last night�s star player Urpo Sivula was held to a �mere� 22 points when compared to his 31 point effort the night before. Clay Stanley lead Team USA with a total of 19 points including 3 from aces. Coach Alan Knipe made only one switch in starters replacing Sean Rooney with Matt Anderson on the left side. Anderson provided 16 points in the match including 2 aces and a block. Olympian Reid Priddy was removed from the match at the 3 � 3 mark in the second set replaced by Paul Lotman. Coach Knipe indicated that Reid �tweaked� his quad and he didn�t want to take any chances in furthering the injury. Team USA started out the first set with intensity jumping out to a 3 � 0 lead which they held throughout the entire set. The starting lineup had Stanley, Holmes and Priddy in the fro

Team USA had no answer for Urpo Sivula in their five set loss to Finland during the FIVB World League international men�s volleyball match tonight. The 22 year old opposite hit .570 with 28 kills, an ace and two block kills for a total of 31 points. Sivula routinely found a way to score a point with many points delivered against a three man USA block. The experienced �old timers� of Clay Stanley, David Lee and Reid Priddy kept Team USA in the match with strong play and dominated during their second and fourth set wins in front of approximately 3,500 fans at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL. Team USA started Sean Rooney, Clay Stanley and David Lee in the front row with Russell Holmes, Kevin Hansen and Reid Priddy across the back. This was Holmes first start in the 2010 World League. Finland started out strong jumping out to 4-1 and 6-3 leads. Team USA battled back several times and actually took a brief lead at the 2nd technical timeout (16-15). Finland jumped ahead 23-20 o