2012 Season Review 22, 25-19, 25-21). The U.S. Men left Lyon with the lead in the pool. “For us to win our three games is very positive,” U.S. opposite and team captain Clay Stanley (Honolulu, Hawaii) said. “We put together a good game plan. We are happy about the way we played. We were consistent throughout these three matches so that’s the best thing that we could ask for.” The team traveled straight from France to Gwangju, Korea where Speraw again served as head coach and helped the U.S. Men win all three matches against Italy (22-25, 25-21, 29-27, 25-16), France (25-21, 25-21, 25-20) and Korea (2520, 25-18, 25-18). Team USA left Korea with a 7-2 record and the lead in the pool. But it still needed to win two matches when it hosted World League in Dallas on June 29-July 1. “We are in the process of deciding our final 12 players for London,” said Knipe, who rejoined the team in Dallas. “These World League matches are an important part of that. “We are also continuing to fine-tune our game plan for London.” The U.S. Men got off to a good start in Dallas by sweeping Korea 32-30, 26-24, 25-22. But it stumbled in its second match, falling to France 25-20, 22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13.
four weekends with each country hosting all four teams in their respective pool on one weekend each. The four pool winners, plus the best second-place team and host Bulgaria qualified for the Final Round.
Things did not look good in the match against Italy as the U.S. Men fell behind 2-1 in sets and were trailing 8-6 in the fourth. The team used a 4-0 run to pull ahead and went on to win the match 26-28, 25-20, 24-26, 25-17, 15-10.
The first World League weekend was rough as the U.S. Men fell to France (17-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-17), needed five sets to defeat Korea (20-25, 18-25, 25-17, 25-23, 1715) and lost 3-0 to host Italy (25-16, 25-20, 25-16).
“It was a great effort by our team, especially players who came off the bench: Dave Smith, Sean Rooney,” Stanley said. “We have been trying not to get down in matches and keep our heads up; keep pushing, keep going.”
Knipe admitted that fatigue could have been a factor in the team’s poor performance. “I think it was hard for the guys to stay so focused for so many weeks in a row,” he said. “But we still could have played much better than we did.” The team then had three weeks off from World League competition while other Olympic qualifying tournaments were played. It traveled to Lyon, France for the next World League weekend on June 15-17. Knipe did not travel with the team as he dealt with a family emergency. John Speraw filled in along with assistant coaches Gary Sato and Ron Larsen and helped the team go 3-0 in France with victories over Italy (30-28, 28-26, 25-22), Korea (22-25, 25-23, 27-25, 25-16) and France (20-25, 25-
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