Micah Christenson of the United States led the team four of their nine aces in the match against
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 11, 2016 – The United States recorded their first victory in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games men’s volleyball competition, as they had an excellent service game against Brazil.
The coaches and players agreed that USA’s service game made the difference, which put on pressure on the hosts to struggle on reception.
John Speraw, Coach of USA:
I am very pleased to see the continued improvement of our team. I thought we played a much better match against Italy than Canada. We played a better match tonight in the service line. The guys were very aggressive and maintained that pressure in the course of the match. Our serve and pass made the difference.
David Lee, Player of USA:
What a beautiful match tonight, I think it was well played by both sides. It ultimately came down to service and reception. We served aggressively and we passed the ball really well. We also had an outstanding performance by Matthew Anderson.
Aaron Russell, Player of USA:
We had our backs against the wall, we needed to play hard, and I think that it showed that we fought for every point. We could tell that we had a different intensity out there. It was a lot of fun to play.
Micah Christenson, Player of USA
:We are happy with our performance. We came out and we played better. We served the ball very well and that was a good part of our success. We hope we can continue to get better.
The game plan was to fight for every single point and I think we showed that in this match. We gave everything that we could on offence and defence. It’s always nice to play our best volleyball and continue to play better. It’s such a big game to play Brazil in Brazil, so we’re very happy.
Bernardo Rezende, Coach of Brazil:
Both teams played a great match, although we didn’t serve as well as they did. This was the game of service and Sergio was running after the ball the whole match. When we managed to control the balls, they were digging it well.
Bruno Rezende, Captain of Brazil: