Coach John Speraw huddles with his team during the match between the U.S. and Russia
Dallas, USA, July 3, 2016 - The U.S. won a long and intense first set 35-33 and had an easier time winning the next two sets, 25-17, 25-21 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Arena. Team USA will move on to the Final Round after finishing second while Russia will go home an prepare for the Olympic Games.
Vladimir Alekno, coach of Russia: [The US] were faster and we couldn't keep up. We could not catch up with them in anything. We have a month ahead (to prepare for the Olympics) and we will be ready.
John Speraw, coach of USA: From our perspective I thought we did a great job of passing the ball. Russia's a great, tough serving team and I think Erik Shoji had a phenomenal volleyball match and allowed Micah to run whatever he wanted to run. So I think that was the difference in the volleyball match.
Sergey Tetyukhin, captain of Russia: Of course we’re upset that we lost, so it was obvious that frustration was seen after the first set and we made some mistakes. When I look at the match, I got the impression that the U.S. team had more drive to win. So my calculations is it is a team victory and best luck to them in the Finals.
On the team looking forward to the Olympics: That is a big question because there is still time ahead. Maybe from one side it is better that we didn't go out in the Finals and we’ll have more time to improve our mistakes and for better performance.
David Lee, captain of USA: This is probably one of the best crowds we've had in the U.S. and it was a good win. Traditionally our overall record is probably them beating us, so any time we can come out and sweep them is a great thing. This is a good team, too. It's not a pushover Russia team. It's one of the top teams in the world. It was good to get the experience of playing them now because I'm sure we'll see them in Rio.
We made it exciting (in the first set). Those are always fun sets to play because it's so rare you actually get over 30, so any time that happens it's nice to be on the winning side.