Aug. 21, 2016
Team USA Recap
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A trio of Penn State men's volleyball alumni made program history Sunday in leading the United States Men's National Team to the Bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Matt Anderson, Max Holt and Aaron Russell played instrumental roles throughout the tournament and on Sunday, as the U.S. rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat defending Olympic champion Russia, 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-13) for the Bronze. The trio becomes the first members of the Penn State men's volleyball program to capture Olympic medals.
"As soon as that gold-medal chance was taken away, we put up a new goal of winning this one and that's what we did," Anderson said to TeamUSA.org. "There are no ties in the Olympics.
Anderson, whose spike sealed the match, led the way for the U.S. with 21 points, a pair of blocks and a service ace. Holt registered 13 points, three aces and two blocks. Penn State's three U.S. men's volleyball squad members are the most among all colleges and universities.
"It's fitting that we end like that," Max Holt said to USAVolleyball.com. "This whole tournament we've been fighting for our lives. We weren't going to go down like that. Everybody just dug deep. It took us a couple sets to get going. But once we figured out their schemes and put a better game plan together to stop their big boys and served a little more aggressively, we just fought."
The former Nittany Lion standouts helped U.S. Men's Volleyball earn an Olympic medal for the fifth time overall since 1984. The U.S. won Gold in 1984, 1988 and 2008 and Bronze in 1992 and 2016. Anderson was a member of the 2012 U.S. squad and Holt was an alternate.
The Bronze medals won by Anderson, Holt and Russell bring Penn State Athletics' total number of Olympic medalists to 37 all-time.
From West Seneca, N.Y., outside hitter Anderson was the 2008 AVCA Co-Player of the Year in leading Penn State to the 2008 NCAA Championship. A middle blocker from Cincinnati, Holt was a two-time first-team All-American who also helped the Nittany Lions capture the 2008 national title. From Ellicott City, Md., outside hitter Russell also was a two-time first-team All-American, playing for Coach Mark Pavlik.
Penn State has a school record contingent of 25 in Rio, which includes 18 competitors (16 student-athletes), three coaches and four alternates, representing the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Japan and the U.S. Virgin Islands. With 12 first-time competitors in Rio, the Nittany Lions have had a total of 109 student-athlete Olympians all-time.
Penn State's 12 active competitors on Team USA leads the Big Ten and are tied for No. 6 among all colleges and universities, according to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). The Nittany Lions are tied with Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and Princeton with 12 Team USA members for the Rio Olympics.
On Saturday, former Penn State women's volleyball All-Americans Christa (Hamotto) Dietzen and Alisha Glass helped the Team USA to the Bronze, giving the Nittany Lions' Rio competitors a total of eight medals.
Former fencing All-American Miles Chamley-Watson helped the United States men's foil team defeat Italy on Aug. 12 to win the bronze medal. Another fencing All-American, Monica Aksamit, helped the U.S. women's saber squad also beat Italy to win the bronze medal on Aug. 13.
Former Penn State All-American Joe Kovacs earned Penn State's 32nd Olympic medal all-time, Aug. 18th. Kovacs earned a silver medal in the men's shot put with a throw of 21.78m (71'-5.50") to become the first silver medalist for Penn State since Mike Shine who won a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada.
In addition to the NBC Television networks, coverage of the Olympics can also be found on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App.
The complete schedule for Penn State Athletics' competitors and coaches and more can be found at the Nittany Lions' Rio Olympics Central: http://www.gopsusports.com/olympians/rio-2016.html.