U.S. Men's Volleyball Begins Paris Olympic Qualification
October 03, 2023 | Men's Volleyball
The U.S. Men's National Volleyball Team began its quest to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games over the weekend at the FIVB Road To Paris Olympic Qualifier in Tokyo, Japan. Bruin head coach John Speraw leads the U.S. team which features Bruins Garrett Muagututia and Micah Ma'a along with second assistant coach Morteza Shiari, a current UCLA men's volleyball assistant. The U.S. Men are ranked No. 2 in the world and have competed in 12 Olympic Games, including the last 10. The U.S. has won three Olympic gold medals and two bronze.
The U.S. Men play matches against Egypt, Finland, Türkiye, Tunisia, Slovenia, Serbia and Japan. At the qualifier, each team will each play seven matches over nine days from Sept. 30 to Oct. 8. The top two teams will qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games. There are two other eight-team qualifiers going on at the same time in Brazil and China. At the end of the three qualifiers, six teams for the Olympics will be determined, plus the host country France. The other five teams will be determined based on world rankings in mid-June 2024.
There are ten Olympians on the U.S. men's roster, including Muagututia, who took part in his first Olympics in Tokyo after being an alternate for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team. A 6-5 outside hitter from Oceanside, Calif. (Francis Parker HS), Muagututia made his debut with the U.S. Men's National Team in 2011 at the Pan American Cup. He has played professionally in Spain, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Poland, China, Portugal and Greece.
At UCLA, Muagututia earned second-team All-America honors in multiple seasons (2010, 2008). He led the Bruins in kills as a senior (446) and finished his career with 71 double-digit kill matches, 19 double-doubles and 99 aces. Muagututia ended his Bruin playing days as the rally scoring era school leader in block solos (44) for a career and in second-place on the all-time kills list (1,473).
Ma'a will be looking to play in his first Olympic Games. He was a member of the UCLA men's team from 2016-19 and has been a member of the U.S. Men's National Team since 2018. Ma'a has played professionally in France since 2019. He was a 2018 and 2019 first-team AVCA All-America and first-team All-MPSF selection while setting the Bruins to two of the highest attack percentages in the country each season. He established a school record for most aces in a season with 67 in 2019 when he ranked third nationally with a 0.64 aces per set average and finished up his UCLA career with a school-record total of 208 aces.
Speraw, who led the UCLA men's volleyball team to the 2023 NCAA National Championship has been the U.S. Men's head coach since 2013 and helped them to the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games. Earlier this year, in September, he led the U.S. to the NORCECA Championship.
"The NORCECA Championship was a great opportunity for us to learn about what we needed to do going into Tokyo," Speraw said. "Our guys are well prepared. It will have a familiar format, like the World Cup, where we have done well. We're a little bit older, so it's going to take a team effort. But I think the team is ready."
U.S. Men's Volleyball Roster
No. Player (Position, Height, Hometown, College)
1 Matt Anderson (Opp, 6-10, West Seneca, N.Y., Penn State)
2 Aaron Russell (OH, 6-9, Ellicott City, Md., Penn State)
4 Jeff Jendryk (MB, 6-10, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola-Chicago)
5 Kyle Ensing (OPP, 6-7, Valencia, Calif., Long Beach State)
8 T.J. DeFalco (OH, 6-5, Huntington Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
10 Kyle Dagostino (L, 5-9, Tampa, Florida, Stanford)
11 Micah Christenson (S, 6-5, Honolulu, Hawaii, Univ. of Southern California)
12 Max Holt (MB, 6-10, Cincinnati, Ohio, Penn State)
14 Micah Ma'a (S, 6-3, Kaneohe, Hawaii, UCLA)
17 Thomas Jaeschke (OH, 6-6, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola-Chicago)
18 Garrett Muagututia (OH, 6-5, Oceanside, Calif., UCLA)
19 Taylor Averill (MB, 6-7, San Jose, Calif., Univ. of Hawaii)
20 David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., Univ. of California Irvine)
22 Erik Shoji (L, 6-0, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford)
Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coaches: Matthew Fuerbringer and Javier Weber
Performance Analyst and Technical Coordinator: Nate Ngo
Mental Performance Coach: Andrea Becker
Second Assistant: Morteza Shiari
All matches will be broadcast on volleyballworld.tv
Sept. 30 at 12 a.m. USA vs Egypt
Oct. 1 at 12 a.m. USA vs Finland
Oct. 3 at 12 a.m. USA vs Türkiye
Oct. 4 at 12 a.m. USA vs Tunisia
Oct. 6 at 12 a.m. USA vs Slovenia
Oct. 7 at 12 a.m. USA vs Serbia
Oct. 8 at 3:25 a.m. USA vs Japan
All times PT
