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Posted at 6:58 a.m., Monday, November 26, 2007

Volleyball: U.S. men sweep Korea in World Cup

Associated Press

OKAYAMA, Japan — The United States used 19 blocks to defeat Korea today at the men's volleyball World Cup.

David Lee and Ryan Millar led the U.S. with seven blocks in the 25-18, 25-15, 25-18 victory.

The United States, ranked No. 5 in the world, improved its World Cup record to 5-2. The U.S. men will close out round three tomorrow against Australia. The top three World Cup finishers will qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"We played well, particularly defensively," U.S. coach Hugh McCutcheon said. "We had good blocking and defense and it was an all-around good performance."

Lee led the U.S. with 12 points, four kills and one ace. Millar added 11 points and four kills. Gabe Gardner had 11 points on 10 kills and one ace. Sean Rooney scored 10 points on nine kills and one block.

Kaiser High and University of Hawai'i alum Clay Stanley played for the U.S. as a substitute in the second and third games but did not register any statistics.

In other matches, Russia improved to 7-0 with a 25-19, 25-18, 25-19 win over Egypt.

Pavel Kruglov led the way with 12 points for the Russians.

"The challenge for our team was to conserve energy as much as possible and to win the game without losing any sets," Russia coach Vladimir Alekno said. "I am very happy we could achieve both targets."

Also, Brazil improved to 6-1 with a 25-19, 25-16, 25-21 win over Tunisia (1-6) while Bulgaria (5-2) downed Australia (3-4) 25-17, 25-19, 25-13.

Puerto Rico downed host Japan 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 to improve to 4-3. Japan fell to 3-4.

European champions Spain (3-4) downed Argentina 26-24, 25-22, 25-18. Argentina is 4-3.