USA claim emotional volleyball win

The United States men’s indoor volleyball team won a dramatic match with a heavy heart on Sunday.

Just a day after Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of United States coach Hugh McCutcheon, was murdered, Team USA posted a 25-18 25-18 22-25 21-25 15-10 triumph over Venezuela in Group A action.

Todd and Barbara Bachman – parents of 2004 volleyball Olympian Elisabeth ’Wiz’ Bachman – were attacked by a Chinese man while visiting the 13th-century Drum Tower on Saturday.

“It’s been pretty emotional for the last 24 hours,” United States captain Thomas Hoff said.

“It’s a game out there, nothing compared to what happened to our team. The best thing we could do was to come out here and try to play volleyball.”

Ron Larsen served as the interim head coach for the match in place of McCutcheon.

“We went into the game knowing the tragedy had happened and also knew that four years had gone into this,” Larsen said.

“We came into the tournament playing wonderful USA volleyball – some of the greatest this decade. This is about a team, not individual people.”

The Americans, who are in search of their first medal in 16 years, jumped out to a two-set lead but struggled to close out the Venezuelans.

But the US held on and took the final set, completing the match just after the two-hour mark.

“It had a lot of ebbs and flows,” Larsen said of the match.

“Early on, we were playing at a fairly good level. They had difficulty returning the serve. We knew Venezuela were a very physical team.”

Clayton Stanley had 21 kills and Lloy Ball had 23 assists to lead the United States, who are currently ranked third in the world.

In other Group A action earlier Sunday, Italy defeated Japan in four sets 25-19 25-18 23-25 25-17.

Brazil were also victorious, posting a three-set triumph over Egypt in Group B.