Olympics: USA men suffer tough loss to Italy to open Olympic Games

by Paul Soriano USA Volleyball Manager, Media Relations & Publications

Matej Cernic scored a team-high 19 points as Italy won a hotly contested match against the United States, 3-1, in the Olympic men's volleyball opener for both teams Sunday night at Peace and Friendship Stadium in Athens, Greece.

Cernic had 18 kills and one block in the 25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 25-23 victory for Italy, the world's No. 2-ranked team.

Andrea Sartoretti scored 18 points and Alessandro Fei added 17 points for the Italians, one of the medal favorites going into the Games.

Clay Stanley (Honolulu, Hawaii) scored a match-high 21 points on 14 kills, four service aces and three blocks for Team USA, which will play the Netherlands in its next match on Tuesday, Aug. 17 at 4 p.m.

"I think we can walk away from this match with our heads up," said Stanley. "We started off real slow in the first game but a lot of us found our rhythm towards the end. I think we struggled a little bit passing. That's something we need to work on and talk about. Hopefully we can take this new information into the next match."

Kevin Barnett (Naperville, Ill.) added 10 points on six kills and a match-high-tying four blocks for the United States, which dropped its ninth-straight match in Olympic competition dating back to the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.

The Americans had a chance to win the fourth set and force a fifth-set tiebreaker but let a 23-21 lead slip away as Italy scored the final four points of the set to win the match.

Italy led by four points in the fourth set, 10-6, before Team USA went on an 11-5 runÂ-punctuated by two Reid Priddy (Richmond, Va.) kills, an ace by Lloy Ball (Woodburn, Ind.) and a block by Tom Hoff (Park Ridge, Ill.)Â-to take a two-point lead (17-15).

Italy tied the score at 18-all before the U.S. parlayed another block by Hoff, an Italian hitting error, a kill by Priddy and a kill by Barnett into a 22-19 lead.

Still, Italy refused to quit. The 2000 Olympic bronze medalist put together a match-clinching 6-1 run to finish off the United States and join Brazil and the Netherlands as first-day winners from Pool B.

"It is a tough way to start, but we showed that we can play with anyone in the world right now," said Barnett, a two-time Olympian. "It's just a matter of not giving up a couple of runs in the middle of games to one or two servers. If we don't do that, we can go on our own runs.

"We showed that we come back from four points, five points, and tie it again, on our own runs," he added. "If we can side out more consistently, we have the serving and blocking to really put them away. That's what we did in game two. In game two, we went on a run, got up, and then sided out consistently to win."

Hoff finished with eight points on seven kills and one block while Phil Eatherton (Glencoe, Mo.), who started the match in his Olympic debut, tallied seven points on five kills and two blocks.

"I wish we had a different start to the Olympics," said Eatherton. "But we have to put tonight behind us, relax and concentrate on our next match."

In Pool A action on Sunday, Argentina, Poland and Greece all emerged victorious to gain an early advantage in the race for the Olympic quarterfinals.

For more information and complete rankings, go to the USA Volleyball web site or the FIVB web site.