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Check out the men’s volleyball matches from the FIVB World League Final Round to follow today and how to follow them live.
United States (4-5) vs. France (8-1)
Match vitals: 5:40 p.m. (3:40 p.m. CST) in Curitiba, Brazil
Follow live: Live stats, In-match tweets, TV (Universal HD)
Season series: France leads 1-0
NCAA players on U.S. roster: TJ DeFalco (Long Beach State); Jeff Jendryk (Loyola); Taylor Averill (Hawai’i 2012-15); Carson Clark (UC Irvine 2008-12); Micah Christenson (USC 2012-15); Thomas Jaeschke (Loyola 2013-15); Garrett Muagututia (UCLA 2007-10); Dan McDonnell (UC Irvine 2011-12); Ben Patch (BYU 2013, 2016-17); Taylor Sander (BYU 2011-14); Kawika Shoji (Stanford 2007-10); Erik Shoji (Stanford 2009-12); David Smith (UC Irvine 2004-07); Dustin Watten (Long Beach State 2005-09)
NCAA players on France roster: None
What to know: It took a lot on the final day of preliminary round for the United States to earn the last berth to the six-team FIVB World League Finals. The team now has just as big of a challenge on the opening day of the event. The United States in its first of two pool-play matches will play France, which had the tournament’s best record during the preliminary round. Despite the United States starting World League with three consecutive losses, it rallied to win four of last six matches culminating with a four-game comeback road victory against Poland to help it clinch a finals berth. One of the those two losses, though, following the opening weekend of World League was a four-game loss to France. U.S. outside attacker Taylor Sander in that loss finished with a match-high 20 kills and a 68.97 percent offensive efficiency. Sander enters the finals third in the World League with 128 kills and in the tournament’s top five with an offensive efficiency of 50.43 percent. The former BYU All-American also is seventh in World League averaging 0.37 aces per game, including having two aces in the previous meeting versus France. Sander is one of the few players from the U.S. team that won a bronze medal at the Olympics last year to compete in World League this year. With this being the first year of the Olympic quadrennial, the United States and several others countries opted to rest some players from this year’s World League. Among the new players on the U.S. roster includes former BYU All-American opposite Ben Patch. Patch making his World League debut is in the tournament’s top five with both a 52.86 percent offensive efficiency and 111 kills. Loyola All-American Jeff Jendryk also had nine kills and zero attack errors while adding a match-high four blocks in the preliminary-round finale victory against Poland. Jendryk is one of two current college players on the U.S. roster. Long Beach State All-American TJ DeFalco has appeared in every match this World League and had a tournament-best nine kills in a five-game loss to Russia during the final weekend of preliminary round play. France enters the World League Finals with the best offensive player so far at the tournament. Opposite Stephen Boyer leads all players with both 135 kills and a 0.52 aces per game average. He also is second at the World Championship with a 53.15 percent offensive efficiency. Boyer had team-high 17 kills and two aces in the preliminary round victory against the United States. This match also will be the first time this year that the United States and France will play in a non-traditional volleyball venue. The World League Finals will take place at the Arena da Baixada, a soccer stadium that seats about 42,000 fans and was used during the 2014 World Cup.
Brazil (6-3) vs. Canada (5-4)
Match vitals: 3:05 p.m. (1:05 p.m. CST) in Curitiba, Brazil
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, In-match tweets
Season series: Brazil leads 1-0
NCAA players on Brazil roster: None
NCAA players on Canada roster: None