It’s that time again. The U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team is back in action, marking the start of the 2019 international season with a trip to Katowice, Poland, for its first pool of Volleyball Nations League.

In 2018, Team USA brought home two bronze medals, the first from the inaugural edition of VNL, and the second from World Championships. 

“We’re tired of finishing in third place,” team captain Taylor Sander said, “It just makes us hungrier to get in that gold-medal match and to win, so this year is just going to be a grind.”

Here’s everything you need to know about the men’s national team’s matches this week in Poland.

Team USA

Head coach John Speraw selected a mix of veterans and rookies to travel for the first week of VNL. Setters Micah Ma’a and Josh Tuaniga, middle blocker Mitch Stahl, and opposite Kyle Russell are all making their VNL travel-roster debuts. More familiar names to followers of the men's national team include captain Taylor Sander, Jeff Jendryk, Kawika Shoji, and T.J. DeFalco. See below for the complete 14-player Week 1 travel roster.

3C  Taylor Sander (OH, 6-4, Huntington Beach, Calif., BYU)
4 Jeff Jendryk (MB, 6-10, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola of Chicago)
5 Kyle Ensing (Opp, 6-7, Valencia, Calif., Long Beach State)
6 Mitch Stahl (MB, 6-8, Chambersburg, Pa., UCLA)
7 Kawika Shoji (S, 6-3, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford)
8 T.J. DeFalco (OH, 6-5, Huntington Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
9 Jake Langlois (OH, 6-10, San Jose, Calif., BYU)
14 Micah Ma'a (S, 6-3, Kaneohe, Hawaii, UCLA)
16 Josh Tuaniga (S, 6-3, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
18 Garrett Muagututia (OH, 6-5, Oceanside, Calif., UCLA)
20 David Smith (MB, 6-7, Saugus, Calif., UC Irvine)
21 Dustin Watten (L, 6-0, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State)
22 Erik Shoji (L, 6-0, Honolulu, Hawaii, Stanford)
25 Kyle Russell (Opp, 6-9, Loomis, Calif., UC Irvine)

The Competition

Brazil | Friday, May 31, 10:30 AM CT | Watch Live

On the beach or the hard court, Brazil will always be the USA’s biggest rival in all things volleyball. Last year, the U.S. men lost to Brazil in VNL pool play, but then defeated the South Americans in the bronze-medal match. At World Championships, USA lost to the Brazilians in straight sets in the last match of third-round pool play, where Brazil ultimately took home silver.

Brazil beat the USA seven times in the 2017 season, twice in major competitions: preventing the Americans from fighting for a gold medal with a defeat in the semifinals of the 2017 World League and in the penultimate match of Grand Champions Cup, which Brazil won. 

Ranked No. 2 in the world to Brazil’s No. 1, you’d have to consider the USA an underdog in this VNL-opening matchup, but only by the slightest of margins.

Captain and setter Bruno Mossa Rezende highlights the list of key players for Brazil. Fresh off a Champions League gold medal with his professional team Cucine Lube Civitanova, Bruno returns for his 13th season competing with the Brazilian senior national team.

Wallace De Souza and Douglas Souza, Brazil’s top scorers from the 2018 World Championships, are also featured on the 25-player VNL roster; however, like every other team, Brazil may choose to rest some of its veterans and give younger talent a chance early on. 

If you’ve followed the Brazilian men’s national team closely over the last few years, you might notice a new name on the 2019 VNL roster: Yoandy Leal, a 30-year-old native of Cuba. The 6-foot-7 outside hitter played for the Cuban national team from 2007 to 2010, helping Cuba take home silver at the 2010 World Championships, but he has since defected and established residency in Brazil, finally getting approved to compete for his new home country in the 2019 season. Also a professional teammate of Bruno’s, Leal made major contributions to Lube’s Champions League victory and will be a valuable asset for head coach Renan Dal Zotto in the long VNL tournament.

Poland | Saturday, June 1, 10 AM CT | Watch Live

The USA and Poland played each other three times last year, but the U.S. men will only be thinking about one of those meetings when the two teams face off on Saturday: the five-set loss in the semifinals of the 2018 World Championships that kept the USA from playing in the gold-medal match. 

“Losing to Poland in five sets, it just drained everyone,” Team USA libero said in an interview in January. “We felt that we had the possibility to go gold-gold in the summer and going bronze-bronze, it was just emotionally draining, but more so left just a bitter taste. And so, I truly believe it will be for the best in how all the guys right now are taking their day-to-day and how hard they’re working and the mindfulness they’re working with, not only waiting for the summer but doing it now.”

After a full eight months of thinking through that disappointing loss to Poland, the Americans get a chance at redemption. This match will be very important for team morale, even if it doesn’t have an impact whether or not the U.S. men make the Final Six.

Poland enters the 2019 season ranked fourth in the world, but having won the last two World Championships (2014 and 2018). The Poles finished fifth at the 2018 VNL.

The top scorer from Poland’s 2018 VNL squad, Artur Szalpuk, will likely be a key player for his team once again, along with setters Fabian Drzyzga and Grzegorz Lomacz and captain Michal Kubiak.

However, Bartosz Kurek, the reigning World Championships MVP and top scorer, is absent from the Poland roster, having undergone back surgery in mid-April. In conversations with Polish media, Kurek has expressed optimism that he will be back in action in time to compete in the Olympic Qualification Tournament in August.

Australia | Sunday, June 2, 7 AM CT | Watch Live

Despite finishing 13th at the 2018 VNL and not advancing past the second round at World Championships last fall, Australia is a fun team to watch with plenty of talented players and potential. 

Ranked No. 16 in the world, Australia’s 25-player VNL roster features five members of the country’s 2012 Olympic roster (Australia did not qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio). 

Key offensive players for the Aussies include Jordan Richards, who led the team in scoring at last year’s VNL, as well as captain Paul Carroll (who played collegiately at Pepperdine), Nehemiah Mote, and Lincoln Alexander Williams. The battle for the starting setter spot between veteran Harrison Peacock and 22-year-old Arshdeep Dosanjh will also be interesting to watch.

Libero Luke Perry spent the 2018-19 professional season competing with Asseco Resovia Rzeszow, alongside American setter Kawika Shoji, so he’ll be sure to have plenty of fans in the stands in Katowice. James Weir and Elliott Viles both play for Brandon University in Canada, which finished the 2019 season with a silver medal in the U Sports national championship. 

Non-USA Match of the Week

Russia vs. Serbia | Sunday, June 2, 12 PM CT | Watch Live

The last time Russia played Serbia, No. 10 ranked Serbia upset No. 5 Russia in five very close sets on its way to a fourth-place finish at the 2018 World Championships. The loss was just Russia’s second of the tournament (the first a four-setter to USA). 

Serbian opposite Aleksandar Atanasijevic scored 23 points in the match, with outside hitter Uros Kovacevic adding 21. Both men are featured on Serbia’s current VNL roster and should be major contributors in the European squad’s 2019 campaign.

On the Russian side of the net, top offensive threats include Egor Kliuka and Maxim Mikhaylov, who had 19 and 16 points, respectively, in that World Champs meeting, and both men are back for 2019.