Volleyball

[CM-BlueButterfly]

Volleyball: Jul 27 - Aug 11

[Bastet]

U.S.A. vs. China (women's) was an exciting game, with some nice long rallies, but, man, were the Americans frustrating me as much as they were their coach with the unforced errors.  That's what cost them the game, as the teams were pretty evenly matched otherwise (other than aces, where the U.S.A. dominated; those are always fun to see).  Tough first match, and tough loss, but a good game.  And Skinner was a dynamo off the bench.

[greyhorse]

Not normally a volleyball fan, but it's early and men's USA/Germany is streaming live.  Close contested match and the speed with which these athletes hit the ball is amazing.  But I am extremely distracted by the female announcer - who I'm sure is a former volleyball player - and her "everyday man/woman" announcing.  She announces the match like anyone who doesn't watch volleyball on the regular and who doesn't know much about the sport.  Examples like: "Russell with the huge swing!", "Wow, that ball is ripped!", "And the block!"... you get the idea.

Seems like she needs a partner to bounce things off of rather than announcing the whole thing by herself.

[MaryMitch]

US Men's team beat Brazil to advance to the semifinals where they will play Poland.

US Women's team beat Poland to advance to the semifinals where they will play Brazil.

 

[Souris]

Home from work because of Hurricane Debby so got to see the end of USA-Brazil. Wow, what a match!

[MaryMitch]

I was at the 1996 woman's semi final match between Cuba and Brazil (Cuba won in 5 and later beat China for the gold). Let me tell you there was no love lost between those 2 teams, and they actually came to blows at the end of the match.

Good times.

[MaryMitch]

Italy really brought their A game today for the women's gold medal match; they beat the US in 3 sets. So the US results are Bronze for the men and Silver for the women.