The United States national youth volleyball team rallied from two sets down to overcome Tunisia, 28-30, 22-25, 25-19, 26-24, 15-9, in Pool A action of the FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship at the Isa City Sports Hall in Fiffa, Bahrain on Monday.
“To win again today feels great. We obviously went the distance in this match,” USA coach Sam Shweisky said. “Tunisia played very well and they really put a lot of pressure on us. I am really pleased to have a lot of guys in the team step up. It’s exciting to see the completeness of our team, so this was a fantastic win.”
Joel Schneidmiller played briefly in the first two sets but top scored for USA with 16 points as a starter in the next three sets. His compatriots Devin Joslyn and Jonathan Bowles had great contribution to their victory as they charted 14 and 11 points, respectively. Yassine Abdelhedi made 14 points on a losing effort.
“To come back the way we did today shows that we have a lot of pride. We definitely brought it out. It shows a lot about our team and how resilient we are,” Schneidmiller said. “The other games we played weren’t easy ones but we didn’t get pushed as much as we did today. This was a good test for us. This game woke us up and snapped us back into shape. They took us to five and it was a good push, and we did well down the stretch to win.”
Incoming Stanford freshmen Tyler Presho and Jaylen Jasper combined to score nine points for the Americans.
Tunisia survived a hard-fought first set against USA, then took the next one for a 2-0 set lead. USA looked revitalized in the third set with a different starting unit headed by Bowles and Schneidmiller, who helped accomplish the win at 25-19. Tunisia had match point but USA stole the set and forced a tie-breaker. USA started with a 5-0 lead then continued to complete the five-set victory.
“We must be ready for whichever team we face in the next round,” Shweisky said. “We’re scouting every opponent, but we want to put great volleyball on the court every time.”
By Palo Alto Online Sports/FIVB
By Palo Alto Online Sports/FIVB
By Palo Alto Online Sports/FIVB