The United States came back from one set down to outgun Athens silver winner Italy in the men's preliminaries on Tuesday.
Strong serving and effective blocking were proved to be the key to the Americans to grasp the second victory 24-26, 25-22, 25-15 and 25-21 after the two-hour toil.
Clayton Stanley contributed the team the highest 23 points, and Hristo Zlatanov led the Italian scorers with 19 points.
"We performed strong serving today, which caused many problems for Italy on receiving and that help us to present good blocking," said Ronald Larsen, the US assistant coach.
The American head coach Hugh McCutcheon still did not show up at the team's second match either after his family members were stabbed in Beijing on Saturday.
"We are not sure when Hugh can come back to the team, but we want to him not to worry about the team and to be free to do what he want to do. Family is the first," said the assistant coach.
The US took an early lead 3-1 in the opener, when Italy surged back 5-4 with the devastating spikes of Captain Alberto Cisolla. The Italians managed to continue their streak to 15-10, when with the Americans leveled to 18-18 with an 8-3 run.
The set became a tit-for-tat battlefield then and was pulled into a 24-all before Italy won with a crafty drop and an ace serve.
The US adjusted their strategy in the second set by improving serve and rebuilding its defense system. It worked though their rivals followed closely throughout the set. But they did not let the opener replayed and sealed the set 25-22 with an unanswered spike of David Lee.
The Americans intensified their offense and controlled the rhythm of the play in the third set, while the Europeans seemed to lose their willingness to fight and they end the set with a dismal 15-25.
Italy came back to life in the finale, but it was hard for them to stop the winning momentum of their rivals as the Americans successfully confined their attacks from the outside. A determined US took the match 25-21.
Andrea Anastasi head coach showed an obvious dissatisfaction of the team's poor performances.
"What comment can I make? We received badly and spiked badly. I think the USA played very, very well and we were not able to play as good volleyball as we wanted," he said at the post-match press conference.
Italy will meet Venezuela in the next match on Thursday, while the US will play Bulgaria.
Twelve teams are competing in two groups in the preliminary round with top four finishers from each group to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Host China is grouped with Italy, the World Cup bronze medalist Bulgaria, the US, Japan and Venezuela and defending champion Brazil, Russia, Serbia, Egypt, Poland and German are in Group B. The knockout stages run from August 20 to 24.
(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)