U.S. coach Jay Hosack made it clear he was not pleased with his team’s performance to open the second round of the FIVB U21 World Championship.
In a match that Hosack said the U.S. players lacked competing with passion, the United States suffered its fourth consecutive sweep as it lost to Italy 25-23, 25-21, 25-21 on Tuesday in the Czech Republic.
“I thought we had some execution moments that were a little less than optimal,” Hosack said in a postmatch interview with USA Volleyball. “Our biggest thing is we’ve got to figure out a way to flip a switch to be passionate about what we’re doing and not just going through the motions because we’re not in the top half of the tournament. We figure that out, we’ll be pretty good.”
The United States entered the second-round consolation pool at the World Championship after finishing the opening round 0-3 and being eliminated from medal contention.
Hawai’i outside attacker Brett Roseneier led the United States (0-4, 0-1 Pool G, 0 points) with nine kills against Italy. In addition, Long Beach State All-American Kyle Ensing outside attacker after not playing in the team’s opening-round finale loss versus Russia returned to the court and had eight kills.
Both UC Irvine middle attacker Scott Stadick and Princeton middle attacker George Huhmann had six kills and at least a .400 attack percentage.
Along with their offensive performances, Huhmann and Ensing each contributed a match-high two aces.
Italy in the victory had a better offensive efficiency than the United States at 50.0 percent to 46.3 percent. It also committed 13 attack errors throughout the entire match — six fewer errors than the United States.
Outside attacker Paolo Zonca finished with a match-high 10 kills to help Italy (2-2, 1-0 Pool G, 3 points) win its second consecutive match.
The United States had multiple-point deficits early in all three games, including giving up a 6-0 run to open the third game. The team rallied to the tie that game at 22-22 but Italy scored three of the final four points to complete the sweep.
“Hats off to Italy for playing a good, clean match,” Hosack said. “They didn’t make many mistakes. We didn’t necessarily help them.”
With this loss, the United States and the host-nation Czech Republic are tied for third place in Pool G. The United States and the Czech Republic (1-3, 0-1 Pool G, 0 appoints) will play each on Wednesday in each team’s second of three second-round matches.
The winner of the United States and the Czech Republic will also remain in contention for a top-10 finish at the World Championship. The top-two teams in the four-team Pool G will advance to the ninth-place semifinals.