tight-knit unit. But the U.S. was part of a 65-nation boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, which derailed the chances of the U.S. to win its first Olympic Games medal.
Los Angeles, 1984 • • • • • • •
Men — Finish: gold medal • Record: 5-1 (3-1 in pool play, 2-0 in the medal round) • Team: Dusty Dvorak, Dave Saunders, Steve Salmons, Paul Sunder- land, Rich Duwelius, Steve Timmons, Craig Buck, Marc Waldie, Chris Mar- lowe, Aldis Berzins, Pat Powers, Karch Kiraly. • Head coach: Doug Beal People forget, but the team that won a gold medal in 1984 to kick off the greatest run in U.S. indoor volleyball history was still a work in progress two years earlier. In fact, the U.S. finished a lowly 13th at the FIVB World Championship, albeit with much different personnel. Under the direction of head coach Doug Beal, who is now USA Volleyball’s chief executive officer, the years leading up to the 1984 Games were filled with experimentation. “We were like lab animals,” starting outside hitter Aldis Berzins once said. The result was a two-passer system that shaped how all international teams played for nearly a decade. With Berzins and Karch Kiraly handling serve-receive, the new system emphasized specialization, which allowed players to make the best use of their signature skills. It also helped launch the frequent use of a powerful back-row attack, a weapon that Steve Timmons and Pat Powers used to punish oppo- nents. Add the monster blocking of 6-8 Craig Buck and the sweet sets of Dusty Dvorak, and the team was on its way to becoming a world power.
The coming attraction to the gold medal was a 27-match U.S. winning streak in 1984 that included a four-match sweep of the Russians in the Ukraine just before the Olympics. It was first time the American men had beaten the Russians since the
Crockett, Laurie Flachmeier, Deb- bie Green, Flo Hyman, Rose Magers, Kim Ruddins, Julie Vollertsen, Paula Weishoff, Sue Woodstra. • Head coach: Arie Selinger
The U.S. was good, but China, led by
future USA coach Lang Ping, was better. The U.S. beat the Chinese in pool play at the Olympics, then advanced to the gold-medal match with a 3-0 victory over Peru in the semis. But after a tight first game in the final, China pulled away quickly for a one-sided victory – 16-14, 15-3, 15-9. It wasn’t an upset. China had established itself as a world power with a dominating gold-medal performance two years earlier at the FIVB World Champi- onship, a tournament where the U.S. finished third behind Peru. Still, “Our goal all along was the gold, so it was disappointing,” says three-time Olympian Paula Weishoff, who was a starter on that team and is now an as- sistant coach for the current U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team. Standouts along with Weishoff on the 1984 team were Debbie Green, Flo Hyman
Seoul, 1988 • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Men — Finish: gold medal • Record: 7-0 (5-0 in pool play, 2-0 in the medal round) • Team: Craig Buck, Bob Ctvrt- lik, Scott Fortune, Karch Kiraly, Ricci Luyties, Doug Partie, Jon Root, Eric Sato, Dave Saunders, Jeff Stork, Steve Timmons, Troy Tanner. • Head coach: Marv Dunphy
Many of the players on the 1988 team will tell you that the very best U.S. men’s team of that era was not the 1984 Olympic gold- medal team or the 1988 Olympic gold-medal team, but rather the 1986 team, which had more collective experience and the addition of outside hitter Bob Ctvrtlik, who went on to play in two more Olympics. By 1988, the starting lineup was newer. Karch Kiraly, Steve Timmons and Craig Buck were still there, but terminating opposite Pat Powers was gone, as was Dusty Dvorak. So Timmons moved to op- posite, and UCLA All American Doug Partie took over the other middle blocker spot next to Buck. At setter was Pepperdine grad Jeff
BEFORE THEY WERE BALD: The 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Volleyball Team was mostly full of hair and big smiles before controversy struck in their opening match. (Photo: USA Volleyball)
1968 Olympics, and it made it that much more disappointing to the players and coaches when the Russians boycotted the 1984 Games. But their run in Los Angeles was convincing, punctuated by a dominating 3-0 victory in the gold-medal match over Brazil. The dynasty had begun. Women — Finish: silver medal •
Record: 4-1 (3-0 in pool play, 1-1 in the medal round) • Team: Jeanne Beauprey, Carolyn Becker, Linda Chisholm, Rita
and Rita Crockett, but the “glue of the team,” Weishoff says, was Sue Woodstra. “She wasn’t flashy, but she did everything – pass, play defense, she was a smart hitter, she could block,” Weishoff says. “She was invaluable.” Sadly, the 6-5 Hyman died a year and a half later of Marfan syndrome while playing volleyball in Japan. She was 31. The silver medal stood as the best U.S.
women’s indoor finish for 24 years, until the 2008 team equaled it with the silver medal in Beijing.
Stork, and Ctvrtlik started alongside Kiraly at outside hitter.
The results, of course, were still fabulous. The U.S. went 5-0 in pool play, fending off a scare from a hot Argentina team that jumped out to a two-set lead before the Americans came back to win in five. In the semis, they crushed Brazil in the three sets, and they took care of the Soviets in four sets in the gold-medal match. It was a grand finale to an incredible run of success in the 1980s that
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