Q&A at Olympics: U.S. coach Speraw previews upcoming pool-play match vs. Tunisia

Photo courtesy of the FIVB

Tunisia may be winless, but U.S. coach John Speraw is fully anticipating it to be a highly competitive match at the Olympics.

Off the Block through the USA Volleyball media department interviewed Speraw about the team’s pool-play match against Tunisia on Wednesday. Check out what Speraw had to say about playing the African champions two days after the United States lost to Russia to move to 1-1 in pool play.

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Off the Block: What’s your thoughts on playing Tunisia and could we see any starting lineup changes?

John Speraw: No lineup changes anticipated at this time. What to expect from Tunisia is probably a tougher volleyball match than most people realize. They’ve pushed a couple of teams in some certain sets, and they’re very capable of putting together a match. They’ve got a good setter, an opposite that plays in Poland, some guys that can pass and one middle in particular that is fairly offensive. We are going to go out there and expect them to play great against USA like most teams do. We expect to have a battle on our hands. As far as what we expect from our game, it’s just playing Team USA volleyball — being super energetic and competitive and playing great next-point volleyball. What we are thinking about is getting that first point and being 1-0 in the first set. … We are going to go out there and play hard.