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OLYMPIC REWIND


LONDON OLYMPICS PREVIEW


Some criticized U.S. Coach Doug Beal for overtraining the team to the point that it broke down, and Beal acknowledges that may have been part of the problem, saying, “I wasn’t probably as aware or as sensitive to the physical issues as I could have been.”


Overall, Beal says he thinks “it was a better team than the way it played in Sydney, but it wasn’t a very confi dent team, so that’s probably my fault.” Women — Finish: fourth • Record: 5-3 (4-1 in pool play, 1-2 in the medal round) • Team: Robyn Ah Mow, Heath- er Bown, Tara Cross-Battle, Mickisha Hurley, Sarah Noriega, Demetria Sance, Danielle Scott, Stacy Sykora, Charlene Tagaloa, Logan Tom, Kerri Walsh and Allison Weston. • Head coach: Mick Haley


Following the 1996 Olympics, there was a mass exodus from the program, and the quadrennial leading up to the 2000 Sydney Games was a transition period, with a new head coach in former University of Texas coach Mick Haley and a completely new pack of players.


The team took its lumps for a couple


of years, fi nishing last (13th) at the 1998 FIVB World Championship and ninth at the 1999 FIVB World Cup. Late in the quadren- nial, Haley made changes and additions. He brought in a knowledgeable assistant coach, Toshi Yoshida, and a host of young talent that included opposite Kerri Walsh, young outside hitter Logan Tom and middle blocker Heather Bown. Also providing a boost were veterans Danielle Scott and Tara Cross-Battle, who returned to the team after play- ing overseas. To the surprise of many, the team made a nice run in Sydney and played a lot of exciting vol- leyball en route to a fourth-place fi nish. Particularly enjoyable for U.S. fans was the team’s upset quarterfi nal victory over Korea, which was more experienced and defensively sound. Down 12-9 in the fi fth set, the Ameri- cans rallied behind amazing digs by Walsh, a big block from Scott and kills from Scott and Tom.


The semifi nal match was equally exciting, and the young U.S. team gave the towering Russians all they could handle before fi nally bowing 15-8 in the fi fth. Two days later, the team lost to Brazil in the bronze medal match, and there were plenty of tears. But in the big


picture, there was nothing for them to feel badly about.


“I’m very pleased with the fi ghting spirit


and never-say-die attitude of our team,” Haley said afterward. “They battle, and they try to fi nd anywhere they can beat you, and they’ve come together as a model that parents can be proud to have their children copy.”


Athens, 2004 • • • • • • • • • •


Men — Finish: fourth • Record: 4-4 (3-2 in pool play, 1-2 in the medal round) • Team: Lloy Ball, Erik Sul- livan, Phil Eatherton, Donald Suxho, Reid Priddy, Ryan Millar, Riley Salmon, Brook Billings, Tom Hoff, Clay Stanley, Kevin Barnett, and Gabe Gardner. • Head coach: Doug Beal


Athens was a big step in the right direc- tion for the U.S. men’s program, which hadn’t had much to celebrate in a long time. Not only had there been consecutive disap- pointments at the Olympics – 9th at Atlanta in 1996, 11th in Sydney in 2000 – but there hadn’t been a medal at either of the two other grand-slam tournaments since the bronze at the 1994 FIVB World Championship which, coincidentally, was also in Athens. The U.S. advanced out of pool play with victories over Netherlands, Australia and Brazil, then recorded the highlight of the tournament against Greece in the quarterfi nal. Facing elimination and down 2-1 in sets and 20-12 in the fourth game, they came back to win the fourth game 25-23 and took the match with a 17-15 win in the fi fth – after they were down 12-9.


“We did the impossible tonight,” middle


blocker Ryan Millar said afterward. A key to the win was backup setter Donald Suxho, who was sent in by Beal early in the fourth game to change the momentum. He did just that – “We kind of ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth, and he was the spark for us,” libero Erik Sullivan said – and the U.S. was on to the semis.


The magic ran out in the next two


matches. A talented Brazil team beat them 3-0 in the semis, and Russia beat them 3-0 in the bronze-medal match.


All in all, considering how many great teams there were in the fi eld, Beal was mostly satisfi ed.


“I think we had a possibility to win a


POWER BUILDING: The foundation for the strong team in 2012 got stron- ger in Athens in 2004. (Photo: FIVB)


58 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at usavolleyball.org/mag


medal in Athens, but it would have been a stretch for that team,” he said. “Frankly, I’m not sure that team was more talented than the team that played so poorly in Sydney, but we were a lot healthier, we were a better serving team and our outsides played more consis- tently.” Women — Finish: fi fth • Record: 2-4 (2-3 in pool play, 0-1 in the medal round) • Team: Keba Phipps, Danielle Scott, Tayyiba Haneef, Lindsey Berg, Stacy Sykora, Elisabeth Bachman, Heather Bown, Ogonna Nnamani, Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, Nancy Metcalf, Tara Cross-Battle, Logan Tom. • Head coach: Toshi Yoshida The fi fth-place fi nish was beneath ex- pectations for a team stocked with talented veterans, many of whom had played key roles in what was considered an over-achiev- ing, fourth-place fi nish four years earlier in Sydney. Among the return- ing contributors: middle blockers Danielle Scott and Heather Bown, setter Robyn Ah Mow, libero Stacy Sykora and outside hitter Logan Tom. Another outside hitter, Tara Cross-Battle, was back for her fourth Olympics. And the U.S. was now under the direction of head coach Toshi Yoshida, who had helped the team turn things around before the Sydney Games in his role as assistant to Mick Haley. Entering the tournament, the U.S. women had their sights set on playing for the gold, but they came out of pool play with an unsightly 2-3 record. Setbacks to two world powers, China and Russia, were explainable, but a fi ve-set loss to Dominican Republic was a hard one to digest; the


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