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When John Speraw was first introduced as the U.S. Men’s National Team head coach one year ago he said in his opening news conference the team would get younger and he would use the FIVB World League to experiment with his roster.
The youth movement and all the roster experiments have now paid off to the United States being one win away from a FIVB World League gold medal.
The United States and Brazil will play each other Sunday afternoon in the FIVB World League championship match.
Check out the FIVB World League match to follow this afternoon.
United States (11-4) vs. Brazil (8-7)
Match vitals: 8:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. CST) in Florence, Italy
Follow live: Live stats, In-match tweets
Last FIVB World League championship: United States (2008); Brazil (2010)
NCAA players on active roster: United States (One); Brazil (Zero)
What to know: Setter Micah Christenson months after spearheading USC to a postseason berth during the college men’s volleyball season is now one match away from helping lead the United States to a gold medal in the biggest international tournament of the year. The United States in search of its first FIVB World League title in six years will play Brazil in the championship match. Christenson as the only current college player on the U.S. active roster has started almost every match during the international tournament. The three-time All-American and 2014 Lloy Ball Award recipient also helped guided the United States offense to a .500 attack percentage in its sweep against Iran in the semifinals on Saturday. In addition, former BYU All-American outside attacker Taylor Sander had a match-high 16 kills, while former Olympian and Pepperdine All-American outside attacker Sean Rooney added nine kills against Iran. Brazil advanced to the championship match after beating Italy on its home-court in its semifinal match Saturday. This will also be the first meeting between the two teams since Brazil beat the United States at the 2013 FIVB Grand Champions Cup and pulled off a two-match series sweep in the FIVB World League last year.