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Rio de Janeiro • How, exactly, does a team three points away from playing for a gold medal hit the reset button?
"I don't know yet," said outside hitter Taylor Sander.
The U.S. men's volleyball team will find out here Sunday morning. There's no other alternative but to move on.
The Americans lost in a dramatic Olympic semifinal match to rival Italy 3-2 Friday at the Maracanãzinho. Leading 2-1 and up 22-19 in the fourth set, the U.S. couldn't shut the door. Pushed to the brink, the Italians countered with six straight points, including three consecutive ace serves to push it to the decisive fifth set. Italy prevailed, 15-9.
Those types of losses will always carry with it a sting, but for how long?
"It's hard to put into words," said middle-blocker Max Holt. This young American team featuring eight first-time Olympians still has one match left in Brazil, and it's for a medal. The U.S. will face Russia at 6:30 a.m. MDT in a battle for bronze. The Russians were swept by the Brazilians 3-0 Friday night.
Can this young American team, backed into a corner so early in this tournament before rattling off four straight wins into the Olympic semis, pick itself up off the mat?
"We just have to regroup and see if we can play a difficult volleyball match against another great team, whoever it is," U.S. coach John Speraw said. "It's difficult to regroup after a disappointing loss like this emotionally. [We'll] get back into the bronze-medal match and compete like we've been competing the whole tournament."
The U.S. began this tournament in an 0-2 hole, swept in its opener against Canada. In its second outing, it lost to Italy 3-1. In a series of must-win matches, the roll began against No. 1-seeded Brazil and continued on over France Mexico and then into the quarterfinal round where the Americans swept Poland, 3-0.
After the semifinal loss to Italy, Holt did his best to turn the page as quickly as possible.
"We're going to come back [and] we're going to battle like we've done in this tournament and be ready to go for bronze," he said.
In Friday's press conference, Speraw said the only way his team would be able to digest the heart wrenching loss to the Italians is to "mourn" the rest of the day so the players could try, at least, to get the residual feelings out of their system. His team, Speraw added, has put itself in a position to medal at the Olympics.
"And we should take advantage of it," he said.
Still warding off the emotion after the loss, Sander, the former BYU volleyball star, said, "We're going to treat it like a gold-medal match."
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
Olympic men's volleyball
Sunday's matches
Bronze medal
USA vs. Russia
6:30 a.m. MDT
Gold medal
Italy vs. Brazil
10:15 a.m. MDT