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Aug. 16, 2007
USA vs. Ukraine Box Score
Courtesy B.J. Evans, USA Volleyball Bangkok, Thailand - Determined not to let the match slip away, the U.S. Men stormed to a 7-2 lead in the fifth set and went on to defeat Ukraine 3-2 (25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 27-29, 15-8) and advance to the semifinals of the World University Games on Wednesday in Bangkok, Thailand. The U.S. Men (6-0) will face Turkey in the semifinal match at 7 p.m. local time (5 a.m. PDT, 8 a.m. EDT) on Thursday at the Sports Authority of Thailand. Canada and Italy will play in the other semifinal match. The semifinal winners will play in the gold-medal match on Saturday at 2 p.m. local time (midnight PDT; 3 a.m. EDT) at Thammasat University. The losers will play in the bronze-medal match at 11 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Friday PDT, midnight EDT), also at Thammasat University. Matt Proper (Meadville, Pa./Penn State) and Robert Tarr (Cape Canaveral, Fla./Long Beach State) led the U.S. Men in scoring with 18 points each. Proper had 15 kills, two blocks and one ace. Tarr added 17 kills and one block. Paul Lotman (Lakewood, Calif./Long Beach State) added 17 points on 16 kills and one block. David Smith (Saugus, Calif./UC Irvine) tallied nine points on five kills, two blocks and two aces. Andy Hein (Carol Stream, Ill./Pepperdine) scored eight points on four kills and four blocks. Evan Patak (Pleasanton, Calif./UC Santa Barbara), who has been the United States' leading scorer through most of the tournament, did not play due to injury. "We got off to a really good start," U.S. Head Coach Alan Knipe (Long Beach State) said. "You know when you're up 2-0 on a team in the medal rounds, you're going to get their best shot in game 3. We knew they were going to hit their serves as hard as they could and go for broke. They gained the momentum and it took a while for us to get it back. But, we played fairly well towards the end of game 4, and in game 5, we were as clean as we could possibly be." While the Ukraine kept the first two sets close, the U.S. Men gained the advantage and held on in the second half of both sets. In the third, Team USA pulled ahead 6-2 early and led by as many as six points when momentum shifted and the Ukraine tied the score at 14-14. The United States was unable to recover, falling 22-25. Despite keeping the score within three points throughout the fourth set, Team USA never truly gained the upper hand and only ever held a one-point advantage. The squad fell 27-29, forcing the match to a fifth set. At that point, momentum had shifted back into the hands of Team USA which opened with a 7-2 run and closed out the game with the 15-8 victory. "We had stretches where we were really good and we had stretches where we kind of fell apart a little bit," Proper said. "The third set we let up a little in the middle, and that kind of gave them some momentum going into the fourth set. It was good that we were able to focus and buckle down in the fifth." Knipe started Lotman and Tarr at the outsides, Smith and Hein at middle blocker, Proper at opposite and Jonathan Winder (Irvine, Calif./Pepperdine) at setter. Alfred Reft (Oxnard, Calif./Hawai'i) continued to play libero. Brian Thornton (San Clemente, Calif./UC Irvine) played setter in the fifth set. C.J. Macias (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./IPFW), Jayson Jablonsky (Yorba Linda, Calif./UC Irvine) and Nick Scheftic (Santa Barbara, Calif./UCLA) all played as substitutes. Macias entered the match in set three, and also played in sets four and five, registering a point. Igor Antonyuk led Ukraine with 22 points on 20 kills and two aces. Ukraine was charged with 41 team errors as opposed to 31 for the United States. 2007 World University Games
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