USA Men's Volleyball Team Toppel(s) Russia 3-0 To Advance To Gold Medal
Match Of 2001 World University Games

BEIJING, CHINA - Curt Toppel (Pacific Palisades, California/ Stanford
University) could not have picked a better night to have his
best performance as his team leading 17 kills propelled the USA Men's
Volleyball Team past Russia in straight sets (25-19,
28-26, 26-24) and into tomorrow's gold medal match of the 2001 Summer World
University Games. Tonight's semifinal victory
over Russia at Beijing's Capital Gymnasium guaranteed at least a tie for the
best U.S. finish ever at the Summer World University
Games. Team USA will try to win their first ever Summer World University
Games gold medal in men's volleyball when they meet
France in tomorrow night's final (August 30), which is scheduled to begin at
8:30 p.m. at the Capital Gymnasium in Beijing, China.
The USA came away with the silver medal in Men's Volleyball at the 1991
Summer World University Games in Sheffield, England,
their only medal in the history of the Summer World University Games.
"For two matches in a row we have been fortunate enough to beat really good
teams," said Ruben Nieves, Head Coach of the 2001
USA Summer World University Games Men's Volleyball Team. "I thought that in
many ways our performance tonight was a carry
over from last night against Brazil. It started with our coaching staff
putting together a very good complete, accurate scouting report
so that the team knew what to expect when we took the court. That's the easy
part, though, the hard part is what the players do,
they go out there and they execute the game plan, they make sure that it
happens. Again, we had a pretty good idea of what Russia
was going to do tonight. They are so good, so big, so physical, though
knowing what they are going to do might not be enough. I
really hand it to the twelve players on this team for playing as well as
they did tonight. Chris (Seiffert) did a great job of utilizing
Curt Toppel tonight. Curt had his best offensive match of the tournament and
Chris did a great job of picking up on that and getting him lots of balls.
Chris did a great job getting our team side-outs against an imposing block.
He had them (Russia) off balance from the start, throughout the match he
knew what their middle blockers were doing and Chris's performance tonight
was huge."
On looking ahead to the gold medal match Nieves added, "We like the way
we've played throughout the tournament and maybe what we like best is how
we've gotten better with each successive match. We had to be better tonight
than we were last night, and we were good last night. The competition here
is outstanding and it is a credit to this team that we have only lost three
sets. We know that we have a very difficult opponent tomorrow in France.
They're a very athletic team, a very spirited team. You can see the way they
celebrate after their victories how much this means to them. Our goal is to
win the gold medal, but we know that France wants the exact same thing."
The USA turned in another all around solid performance tonight and improved
their overall tournament record to six wins and no losses. This was the
second consecutive match in which the USA has not lost a game. In fact they
have only lost three games in the entire tournament (USA has won eighteen
games and lost only three). As a team the USA posted 45 kills, a .380
hitting percentage, seven blocks, six service aces, 25 digs. The team also
had 18 controlled blocks, which means that although the block itself did not
score it allowed the U.S. to control the ball offensively. Curt Toppel, who
led the team with 17 kills also posted a .640 hitting percentage and four
digs. David McKienzie (Littleton, Colorado/Long Beach State University)
recorded 13 kills of his own along with two service aces and four digs. Jim
Polster (Laguna Niguel, California/Long Beach State University) had five
kills, three blocks, one service ace and seven digs. Colin McMillan
(Burlington, Wisconsin/Ohio State University) pitched in five kills, a .670
hitting percentage, two blocks, two digs, and four controlled blocks. Mac
Wilson (Palmdale, California/Brigham Young University) had three kills, two
blocks, two service aces, two digs, and nine controlled blocks. Setter and
Team Captain Chris Seiffert (Laguna Niguel, California/Long Beach State
University) had two kills, a .670 hitting percentage, one service ace, two
digs, and two controlled blocks. Libero Andy Rivera (Los Angeles,
California/University of California, Santa Barbara) had four digs. Keith
Barnett (Hermosa Beach, California/Pepperdine University) substituted in a
serving role and came through big time with two service aces in the latter
part of game one; the U.S. scored three consecutive points with Barnett
serving.
"I think that we gave a really good effort tonight," said Curt Toppel. "We
had to play our hardest. Medals were in our sights. We
knew that if we won this we were guaranteed a medal. That was just in the
back of my mind and I was just going to try to give my all
tonight. I think as a team we put it all together. The two months we've been
training together has really paid off. I definitely felt like I was on
tonight, Chris (Seiffert, setter) was giving me some great sets and things
were just flowing. I think France is going to be
tough, they've worked hard and they are here for a reason. I think that if
we play like we did tonight and give one-hundred and ten
percent I think we have a shot at the gold."
"We have some great offensive weapons," said Chris Seiffert. "We have
phenomenal offensive guys standing at the box. Each night
a couple of guys step it up and when all cylinders are firing we're a tough
team to stop."
On playing for the gold medal at the 2001 World University Games Seiffert
added, "We knew that the USA best finish at the World
University Games was the silver medal. Coming into this tournament, I
honestly didn't know how well we would do. I didn't know
the competition. I didn't know how well we would play. I had an idea of how
well we could play. I think we are meeting our
expectations of ourselves and I think it would be a great honor as an
American volleyball player to get the first gold ever."
Starters for Team USA in today's match were outside hitter Curt Toppel,
outside hitter Jim Polster, middle blocker Mac Wilson,
middle blocker Colin McMillan, outside hitter David McKienzie, setter Chris
Seiffert, and libero Andy Rivera. Also seeing action
were Keith Barnett and Chris Gisslen.
You can follow all of the action of the 21st Universiade by logging onto the
official website for the games at
www.universiade21.org.cn.
Please see below for the complete roster of the 2001 USA Summer World
University Games Men's Volleyball Team.

2001 USA Summer World University Games Men's Volleyball Team Roster

2001 World University Games
Beijing, China - August 22-30, 2001
(Final Numerical Roster As of 8-28-01)

No. Name Position Ht. (ft.) University Hometown
1 Curt Toppel OPP 6'9" Stanford University Pacific Palisades, Calif
2 Andy Rivera L 6'2" University of California, Santa Barbara, Calif.
4 Jim Polster OH 6'6" Long Beach State University Laguna Niguel,Calif
5 Mac Wilson MB 6'9" Brigham Young University (BYU) Palmdale, Calif
6 Colin McMillan MB 6'11" Ohio State University Burlington, Wisconsin
9 Scott Wong OH 6'5" Pepperdine University Pearl City, Hawaii
10 Chris Gisslen S 6'6" Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne , Red Wing, Minn
11 David McKienzie OH 6'4" Long Beach State University Littleton, Col
12 Pieter Olree OH 6'6" Ohio State University Reading, Pennsylvania
14 Paul Fasshauer MB 6'8" Ball State University Hoffman Estates, Ill
15 Keith Barnett S 6'3" Pepperdine University Hermosa Beach, Calif
16 Chris Seiffert S 6'3" Long Beach State University Laguna Niguel, Ca

Staff:
Head Coach: Ruben Nieves - Head Coach, Stanford University (1991-2001)
Assistant Coach: Gordon Mayforth - Head Coach, Loyola University, Chi
Assistant Coach: Jeff Stork - Assistant Coach, Pepperdine University
Team Leader: Mark Pavlik - Head Coach, Penn State University

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp