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Former Ohio State All-American opposite Miles Johnson continued his torrent offensive start to the World University Games, but it wasn’t enough for United States.
Johnson finished with a match-high 23 kills as the United States lost to Chinese Taipei 26-28, 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 15-12 on Monday in Taiwan.
This was the second consecutive match to open the tournament that Johnson had more than 20 kills. The recent Ohio State graduate also led the United States (0-2, 2 points Pool A) with 27 kills in the team’s pool-play opener five-game loss to Japan on Sunday.
Johnson was the only U.S. player to have double-digit kills against Chinese Taipei (1-1, 2 points Pool A). Stanford outside attacker Joradn Ewert and Lewis opposite Ryan Coenen each added eight kills.
Despite former UC Irvine setter Michael Saeta having a match-high 37 excellent sets, Chinese Taipei had a better offensive effiency than the United States at 35.40 percent to 38.69 percent.
Saeta also led the United States with two aces.
Chinese Taipei in the victory had four players with at least 10 kills, including opposite Tsung-Hsuan Wu who had a team-high 16 kills.
With this loss, the United States drops into last place in its five-team pool. The team will continue pool-play against France on Tuesday in a must-win match to remain in medal contention.