United States on to a VNL semifinal against Japan

July 30, 2026.- The United States grabbed the third semifinal spot in the men’s Volleyball Nations League after a massive straight-set sweep of their quarterfinal against reigning world champions Italy in Ningbo Beilun, China on Thursday. The Americans will now face undefeated Japan in Saturday’s semifinals.

In a remake of the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medal match, USA hammered out a remarkable 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) shutout of Italy, highlighted by a remarkable performance from opposite Jake Hanes that propelled the Americans to the VNL semifinals for the fifth time in history, but for the first time since 2023, when they picked up their third silver, in addition to the bronze from the inaugural edition in 2018. The Italians, on the other hand, failed to match their result in 2025, when they not only reached the last four for the first time, but also claimed the silver medal.

The Americans fired as many as six aces in the first set alone and that practically kept them in control of the scoreboard for most of the set. Two of those aces were delivered back to back by Jake Hanes in the money time and brought in a 24-20 set point. Saved twice by the Italians, it was finally converted with a high-flying back-row kill by outside hitter Ethan Champlin for 25-22.

Another five aces by USA in set two kept them in the lead, allowing the Italians only a short-lived advantage at 3-2 in spite of the improved serving on their side, which produced four direct points from the end line. Set point was brought in by Hanes again, this time with a well-placed back-row swing, while middle blocker Merrick McHenry nailed the 25-21 set winner.

A fantastic six points in a row brought back USA from a 15-10 deficit in the third set. Within that run, Hanes produced a successful swing and as many as three aces, while star outside hitter Matthew Anderson added two kills in attack to put their team in front again, a blow Italy never managed to recover from. The Americans pushed on through the end, when Champlin again nailed the winning point with a pipe hit for 25-21.

A total of 14 aces against five from the Italians, made the big difference for USA in this match. They also scored one more point than the opponents in attack (39-38), and made two fewer unforced errors, 17-19. Hanes authored as many as six of those aces. He also raised two kill blocks and hit 13 points in attack at a 59% success rate to emerge as the big hero of the game with a match-high 21 points. Anderson registered a 67% success rate in swinging and put away three aces to finish with 15 points. Champlin chipped in with 10 points, including two from the serving line.

“It’s more of a feeling than a thinking thing. You just have to trust yourself,” Hanes told VBTV about his amazing performance from the serving line. “I think we all did a good job of trying to stay aggressive against a really good side-out team. So, we had to come together and hit some good serves and it ended up working out for us.”

Blocking was the only scoring element, in which the European side outperformed the winners, by 4-3 in stuffs. Opposite Yuri Romano signed off with a team-high 16 points, while outside hitter Mattia Bottolo added another 14.

“They are a strong team, we know that. They played well. I think we also played quite well, but the problem was with reception,” Romano commented. “When we played the ball, we were good, but we allowed too many aces and that’s it – when you don’t hold your side-out, it’s difficult. The positive takeaway from this VNL is that we played with a lot of players, also some very good young ones, who played very well during the VNL. So, we start from this for the European Championship.”