The United States men's national volleyball team took a major step towards the defense of its Olympic gold medal when it qualified for London 2012 by winning the NORCECA qualification tournament with a straight sets 28-26, 25-18, 25-20 victory over Canada in the championship. Ranked No. 6 globally, the Americans faced their stiffest competition in the semifinals, when they dispatched a young fifth-ranked Cuban squad in four sets on Friday in Long Beach.
The United States-Cuba match was a case of men against boys, and that's no slight against the ability of the Cubans. With an average age of 32 years, each American was on average nearly 10 years older than their Cuban counterparts, and 2008 Olympic MVP contributors Clay Stanley, along with veterans Reid Priddy and David Lee, were once again effective for the Americans in all facets against Cuba and throughout the tournament.
One newcomer continuing to turn heads is the youngest player on the American squad, 25-year-old former Penn State Nittany Lion Matt Anderson. The 6-foot-10 outside hitter with a powerful jump serve was the best scorer in the semifinal game against Cuba, accounting for 24 points while holding his own defensively as the target of the majority of the Cubans' serves.
"Absolute beast. The guy's an animal," Lee said of Anderson. "He's one of the young, up-and-coming stars in this game. To see him prove himself tonight, it's really impressive."
Because of the seniority of this United States squad — seven players appearing at the qualifying tournament were born in the 1970s — Anderson is the type of player who can build a bridge between the accomplished gold medal-winning stars such as Stanley and Priddy and the players who will look to represent the Stars and Stripes at future tournaments.
"When you bring youth and that type of athleticism, I think it's inspiring," coach Alan Knipe said of Anderson. "It takes a load off some of our players to not really have to do some things they've done in the past as Matt's continued to develop, because he's certainly still in the bottom half of where he can go as a player. So I think it takes a little bit of pressure off."
A 6-9 opposite, Stanley is a brick wall with lift and still among the more dominant players in the sport after being selected as the MVP, Best Scorer and Best Server in Beijing. He's also coming off a knee injury suffered over the winter while playing for his Russian club team, Ural Ufa. Having impressed his coach with his focused rehabilitation, the NORCECA qualifying tournament is a strong test for the 34-year-old who will be appearing in his third Olympic Games.
"I've said this before — I think someone should have come and did a documentary on how hard somebody could possibly work to get even in better shape than he was before he got injured," Knipe said. "He's in great shape. He just hasn't played a lot of volleyball."
The results were there for the United States in qualifying, and now they'll turn their attention to the national teams of Brazil — whom the US defeated in the gold medal game four years ago — and Russia, two teams that have already booked their ticket to London. While there's relief that they'll be tournament participants, there's still plenty of room for development in the efforts to replicate the success of the 2008 team, which won its final eight games of the tournament to capture gold.
"We have to play a little bit more consistent. Better service, better reception, and a little more consistency overall," Lee said.
"This team has a lot of potential, but we haven't really been together as a group for very long. I think the more time we have together, the more we're going to get better."
'Consistency' is that long-sought-after abstract concept that all sports teams strive for, and even though this will be his first Olympic go-around, Anderson has already itemized ways to find it.
"We've got to look at the film and see what aspects of the game we're doing well, which to me is serving and blocking," Anderson said. "We're big guys, we have a lot of power, and that's kind of what USA Volleyball is known for. So we've just got to work on staying more consistent with that, and constantly keeping pressure on teams."
As a young player on such a veteran squad, Anderson has soaked in all the experience around him, to the benefit of his temperament.
"It's constant feedback from me to them, from them to me," he said. "As a young guy, I bring a lot of fire and a lot of energy to the team. Clay is a great example — he makes an error, but he gets focused right on the next point. And he's good at coming over and telling me, 'Stay positive. Stay strong. Keep serving your hard serve and spiking high and just play your game.'
If the [Olympic] torch is to be handed off between two generational stars of American volleyball, this summer's contributions of Clay Stanley and Matt Anderson will be an interesting side story in USA Volleyball's gold medal defense.
