Stanley earns volleyball respect
Advertiser Staff and News Services
ATHENS, Greece —The way Clay Stanley sees it, the U.S. men's volleyball loss to Italy in its Olympic debut yesterday provided more positives than pain.
Associated Press
The Americans pushed world-No. 2 Italy before falling, 25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 25-23, in a pool match at Peace & Friendship Stadium.
Italy's Luigi Mastranelo, left, and the USA's Donald Suxho confront each other after their volleyball match won by Italy.
The United States, which features Stanley and six other first-time Olympians, raced to within two points of forcing a fifth game before the Italians rallied.
"This tells us we can play with that team — and we can play with any team," said Stanley, a 6-foot-9 hitter from Honolulu.
Stanley, playing before his entire family for the first time in his life, started off slow and was replaced for a few rotations. He came back with the hot hand and helped Team USA close the gap in game one and control game two.
Italy never trailed in game three, but the fourth game saw huge momentum shifts and a dramatic rise in intensity.
The United States scored four straight points to take a 17-15 lead. It pushed the advantage to 23-21 before Italy rallied for the final four points.
Players met at the net after the final point and, after a few minutes of heated discussion, shook hands. "They were talking, saying bad things," U.S. setter Lloy Ball said. "I was just trying to defend my team."
The Americans struggled receiving serves, handling 30.7 percent successfully compared to 62.8 for the Italians. Stanley led the U.S. attack with 21 points, getting 14 kills, three blocks and four aces. No other American had more than seven kills.
It was the Americans' ninth Olympic loss in a row. They play the Netherlands tomorrow. The top four teams in each pool advance to the quarterfinals.
The Italian supporters booed the United States during the match, but afterward many Italians and Greeks asked Stanley to pose for pictures with them.
"They were telling him that he's 'an excellent player — bravo,' " said Desi Duran, Stanley's girfriend and former Rainbow Wahine pitcher. "It was awesome and you could really see that Clay was so very proud, to have played well in front of his entire family and that he was accepted by people from different countries around the world."
Athens2004.com and usavolleyball.org contributed to this report
