USA men sweep Venezuela for sixth-straight World Cup win

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Public Relations & Publications

The USA men's national volleyball team is still on course to get to Athens, Greece, next summer. But to get there this weekend Team USA will need to first go through Italy, Brazil and France.

Tom Hoff scored a match-high 12 points and Brook Billings added 10 to lead the United States to a World Cup sweep of Venezuela to end the third round at the Marine Messe Fukuoka in Fukuoka, Japan, Tuesday afternoon (late Monday night in the United States).

Hoff (Park Ridge, Ill.) had 10 kills, one block and one service ace in the 28-26, 25-16, 25-23 victory as the Americans improved to 7-1 at the first Olympic qualifier with one tough round to go.

"I think it was good to be able to earn three wins without losing any sets in Fukuoka," said Team USA setter and captain Lloy Ball (Woodburn, Ind.), who scored six points on two kills, two blocks and two aces. "We were able to maintain good match-rhythm, and our defense and offense also worked well. What is important in the World Cup is to steadily accumulate wins match-by-match."

Since losing to 2000 Olympic gold medalist Serbia and Montenegro in the second match of the World Cup on Nov. 17, the United States has won six consecutive matches to remain in the thick of the race for a ticket to Athens.

With just three matches remaining, Brazil and Serbia and Montenegro sit atop the World Cup standings with perfect 8-0 records. Italy, also at 7-1, is currently third, followed by the United States.

The top three teams at the 12-team, two-week, round-robin tournament earn automatic bids to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

In case of a tie in the standings, set ratio (number of sets won divided by the number of sets lost) is the first tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker, if needed, is point ratio (number of points won divided by number of points lost).

Through eight matches, the Italians have won 22 sets and lost four (5.50 set ratio). Team USA has won 21 sets and lost six (3.50 set ratio).

The tournament field now travels to Tokyo for the fourth and final round, which begins on Friday, Nov. 28. It is there that the United States will face it toughest tests of the World Cup.

Team USA's final three matches will be against Italy, Brazil and France.

The Brazilians, the defending world champions, are ranked No. 1 in the world. Italy is ranked No. 4 and France is No. 5.

In the win over Venezuela, Billings (Santa Barbara, Calif.) had seven kills and a match-high three blocks in just two sets of action for the United States, which moved up five slots to No. 10 in the world rankings after winning the NORCECA championship in September.

Ryan Millar (Palmdale, Calif.) added nine points while Riley Salmon (League City, Texas) and Clay Stanley (Honolulu, Hawaii) chipped in with eight points apiece as Team USA improved its season record to 22-4.

Ernardo Gomez and Carlos Luna scored 10 points apiece to lead Venezuela, which fell to 2-6 at the tournament.

In other action on Tuesday (all sweeps), Brazil defeated Egypt, France beat Canada, Serbia and Montenegro downed Tunisia, Korea defeated Japan and Italy routed China.

2003 Men's World Cup Standings

Brazil (8-0) Serbia and Montenegro (8-0) Italy (7-1) USA (7-1) France (5-3) Korea (4-4) Japan (3-5) Canada (2-6) Venezuela (2-6) China (1-7) Tunisia (1-7) Egypt (0-8)

For more information, go to the USA Volleyball web site.