2022 FIVB World Championships

Very impressive match by USA vs Turkiye.  USA swept Turkiye -22, -15 and -20.  The closest set was the first, but that wasn't as close as it looked.  USA was in control in the last 3rd of the match.  The 2nd set was close up to the middle of the set, USA leading 14-13.  Then the USA scoring 11 of the last 13 points to put TURK away.   The 3rd set was a very workmanlike set.  Turkiye couldn't figure out the USA at all. 

In spite of the advice of many USA fans , Karch continued with the standard lineup of Poulter, Drews, Franti, Robinson-Cook, Ogbogu, Washington and JWO.  Karch continued to alternate liberos, JWO and Morgan Hentz thru out the match.  Karch did the double substitute of Carlini for Drews and Cuttino for Poulter every set. In the 3rd set, USA put in almost everybody from the bench.  Hanna Tapp came in for Ogbogu.  Bajema came in for Franti.  I'm not sure, but the announcer said that everybody from the bench played except for Ann Stephenson Hall.  

USA put a lot of service pressure on TURK.  USA had 4 aces to TURK's zero, but that wasn't anywhere close to the story.  USA serves were putting TURK out-of-system on a regular basis.  Franti had 2 aces, with Washington and Poulter having one.  USA also out-blocked TURK 13-9.  Interestingly, Drews and Poulter led the USA in blocks with 3.  Hannah Tapp had 2 even tho she only played part of the 3rd set.  Five others each had 1.  So as you can see, EVERYBODY was helping out in the blocking area.  JWO and Hentz were throwing their bodies all over the court, as we have come to expect, digging balls.  

Franti led the USA in kills with 15, hitting .423, back to what we've seen in some prior matches.  Drews had 11 kills, hitting .257.  Washington and Ogbogu had 4 kills apiece, hitting respectively, .667 and .444.  It sure seems, that for some reason, Poulter doesn't set the middle as much as Carlini does.  As expected, Karakurt had 13 kills, but only hit .175.  TURK as a group hit 35-19-110 for a hitting percentage of .145, which the USA hit 44-12-106 for a hitting percentage of .302.  (I had to figure out the team percentages by myself as I couldn't find it on the site, but I'm pretty sure the totals are close).  So there was a significant difference in hitting efficiency.  

Serve receive was significantly better for the USA.  Franti was served a lot as TURK was trying to slow down her hitting.  Didn't work.  The digs were even at 28, but I usually discount the dig totals as, when the teams are relatively even,  the losing team seems to have more digs.  In the OSU vs PSU match tho, OSU out-dug PSU something like 69-42.  Now that is significant.

All in all, this was a very well played match by the USA and quite fun to watch.   I'm fully expecting a rematch with Serbia, (Serbia is playing Poland, shortly that the USA has a LOT of incentive to win.  

Italy handled China relatively easily, winning 25-16, 25-22, 13-25, 25-17.  So Italy will play the winner of the Brazil vs Japan match.

Serbia vs Poland could be interesting as Poland is playing in front of their home crowd.  Whichever team wins, USA has a lot of incentive to beat them to avenge prior losses.