United States Men One Win from World Championship

United States Men One Win from World Championship

COLORADO SPRINGS, United States, May 17, 2014 – The United States men concluded its NORCECA World Championship Pool O Qualification Tournament with a 3-0 record in pool play after sweeping Haiti (1-2) 25-7, 25-10, 25-15 on Saturday evening at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Taylor Sander sparked the U.S. offense with 14 points, including four aces and three blocks. Murphy Troy also scored 14 points in the victory, followed by Russell Holmes with 12 points. Junior Philibert came off the bench to lead Haiti with four points.

The American offense and defense was clicking on all levels with a 33-13 kill margin, 13-1 block advantage and 10-1 service ace margin.

The U.S. will host Guatemala in Sunday’s gold-medal match at 7 p.m. MT with the winner advancing to the 2014 FIVB World Championship in Poland.

United States Team Captain Sean Rooney: “It was nice to see a new lineup. Different guys got to play together. And we accomplished what we came to do, which is getting in the finals. Starting now we are going to prepare for that.”

United States Head Coach John Speraw: “We did some really good things technically that we have been working on so I think we continue to improve in that area. There was a series of service errors in the second set that I want to make sure we re-focus on. Guatemala is a good volleyball team. They continue to play well with a lot of enthusiasm. They were thrilled to get to the final and it was neat to see them celebrate the way they did.”

Haiti Head Coach Yves Larrieux: "We know already that the USA is a winning machine. Before tonight's match, we prepared the team more on the psychological side so that they would not give up. We tried to put some plays in the game that would confuse them."

Haiti Captain Ralph Adolph: "It was a nice match. We tried really hard to get as many points as we could against the USA. In the first two sets it was hard to do, but in the third set we scored 15 points, and we are very happy about that."