When it was all said and done, Russia came out victorious once again this year as they took out team USA.

At the end of a major tournament, it often seems like the silver medalists are the most disappointed team on the podium. Sure, the bronze medalists lost in the semifinals, but they finished the tournament with a win. 

It wasn’t exactly the Curse of the Bambino, but the members of the U.S. men’s national volleyball team are no less relieved to have finally vanquished the semifinal curse that has kept them out of gold-medal matches in four major tournaments in the past four seasons.

A year and a few months after tearing his ACL, you’d have to say Thomas Jaeschke is officially back.

On the second day of Volleyball Nations League Final Round Pool Play, Poland defeated Iran and Russia swept France, results which locked in three of the four semifinalists for the tournament. 

USA head coach John Speraw didn’t love everything he saw from his team in Wednesday night’s Volleyball Nations League Final Round opening match for the U.S. men versus France.

The men’s VNL Final Round begins Wednesday, with the six remaining teams battling it out for three nights of pool play before Saturday’s semifinals and Sunday’s medal rounds. 

The U.S. women’s national team certainly didn’t take the easy road to a repeat Volleyball Nations League gold medal. 

I’m just gonna put it out there: July 7, 2019, was a great day for women’s sports in the United States.

With a pair of four-set victories in Final Round pool play, the U.S. women’s national team moved a step closer to repeating as the Volleyball Nations League champion. And they did it with two almost completely different starting lineups.