FIVB The Hague Grand Slam - Beach Volleyball

Long the innovative pioneer for change and development of the Olympic sport of beach volleyball, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) will again enhance the quality of its 2014 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour this week at the double-gender US$1,000,000 FIVB The Hague Grand Slam.

Offering the largest Grand Slam purse in FIVB history and using three cities for the first time, the FIVB World Tour has had eight events in the Netherlands, four for each gender and all of the previous FIVB World Tour events have been in The Hague.

In preparation for hosting next year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the FIVB and the Dutch national volleyball federation will anchor this year’s tournament in the Hague and have some pool play action in both Amsterdam and Apeldoorn. All three cities along with Rotterdam are scheduled to be the host sites for next year’s world championships.

This year’s FIVB The Hague Transavia Grand Slam is the second of four consecutive FIVB Grand Slam tournaments being held in four separate countries—Switzerland, The Netherlands, the United States and Austria. With the FIVB based in Lausanne, Gstaad hosted last week’s FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam.

This week’s tournament, to be primarily played at The Hague Beach Stadium in Scheveningen, is the sixth of 10 FIVB Grand Slam events in 2014. It will start Tuesday and run through Sunday for both. The tournament format has a one-day qualification tournament on Tuesday to determine the final eight spots in each gender’s 32-team main draw tournaments followed by round-robin pool play and a single-elimination bracket for the final 24 teams. The women’s and men’s medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.

The total entry list for the 2014 FIVB The Hague Transavia Grand Slam includes 93 men’s teams from 34 countries and 72 women’s teams from 30 countries selected by their respective national federations.

The Hague Beach Stadium in Scheveningen will see the qualification tournaments for each gender, some pool play as well as the single elimination ‘knock out’ phase from Friday to Sunday, July 18-20. Additional pool play will be held during event week in the two other cities.

USA qualifies for the semifinals of the NORCECA U-19 Championship - Volleyball News

The United States advanced to Saturday’s semifinals of the NORCECA Boys’ U19 Continental Championship after defeating Puerto Rico, 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 on Wednesday at the Cox Business Center.

 

Team USA finishes pool play at 2-0. Puerto Rico (1-1) will play Guatemala in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The top three finishing teams at the tournament qualify for the 2015 FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship.

 

On Wednesday, The United States’ serving and blocking kept Puerto Rico from mounting a threat. Team USA led in blocks (12-2) and aces (9-1) as well as kills (37-26). Puerto Rico scored 24 points on U.S. errors while committing 17.

 

“I thought it was a great USA effort,” U.S. Head Coach Ken Shibuya said. “We haven’t had much time together, but I was completely excited that we were able to do the things we have been working on. Every time we step on the court we are getting better.”

 

One negative aspect of the match for the U.S. was an injury to setter Josh Tuaniga, who hurt his hand in the third set. His status for the semifinals is not known.

 

Jordan Ewert led the U.S. in scoring with 11 points on six kills, a match-high four blocks and one ace. T.J. DeFalco added 10 points on eight attacks, one block and one ace.

 

Puerto Rico Team Captain Luis Ocasio led his team with 11 points on 10 kills and one block. Yadiel Nadal added eight points on eight kills.

 

“We gave 100 percent and we played well,” Puerto Rico Captain Luis Ocasio said. “But it was a tough match and we needed to play even better to win.”

 

The closest set was the second as Puerto Rico was leading 11-9 before the U.S. came back to tie it at 12-12 and took the 13-12 lead on a kill by Micah Ma’a. The U.S. increased the lead to 16-13 at the second technical timeout and Puerto Rico didn’t respond

Former Italian star Zorzi have his say about National Volleyball Team

Former Italian volleyball star Andrea Zorzi thinks Italy are looking good to win the FIVB World League on current form, and warns that Iran may have missed their chance to qualify after running Russia close on Wednesday in his latest video blog.

“USA were unpredictably dominated by Italy, and the home side can win with the skills of Zaytsev and Kovar,” he says. “The USA attack was average, not good enough to win.” 

Iran, meanwhile will have to beat Brazil on Friday to get through. “Iran were in control at the end of set four, but Russia eventually won quite easily. Ghafour performed really well for Iran, but Brazil are a better side now than when Iran beat them.”