COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 22, 2018) – The U.S. Men’s National Team, ranked No. 2 in the world, has released its preliminary roster for the 2018 FIVB World Championship on Sept. 9-30 in Italy and Bulgaria.
The roster of 22 players includes eight Olympians: opposite/outside hitter Matt Anderson, outside hitters Aaron Russell and Taylor Sander, middle blockers David Smith and Max Holt, setters Micah Christenson and Kawika Shoji and libero Erik Shoji.
Other players on the roster are outside hitters T.J. DeFalco, Brenden Sander and Jake Langlois, middle blockers Jeff Jendryk, Mitch Stahl, Dan McDonnell and Taylor Averill, setters James Shaw and Micah Ma’a, opposites Ben Patch, Carson Clark and Kyle Ensing and liberos Dustin Watten and Michael Brinkley.
The roster will be cut down to 14 before the U.S. Men leave for a pre-Worlds training session in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Sept. 3.
The U.S. Men will go into the World Championship with a 13-6 record this season after they finished third in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League earlier this year.
The U.S. Men won the World Championship in 1986 and finished third in 1994. In 2014, they finished tied for seventh.
2018 FIVB World Championship
U.S. Men’s Preliminary Roster
1. Matt Anderson (Opp, 6-9, West Seneca, N.Y., Penn State)
2. Aaron Russell (OH, 6-9, Ellicott City, Md., Penn State)
3. Taylor Sander (OH, 6-4, Huntington Beach, Calif., BYU)
4. Jeff Jendryk (MB, 6-10, Wheaton, Ill., Loyola of Chicago)
5. James Shaw (S, 6-8, Woodside, Calif., Stanford)
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. Carson Clark (Opp, 6-6, Santa Barbara, Calif., UC Irvine)
10. Dan McDonnell (MB, 6-6, Phoenix, Ariz., UC Irvine)
11. Micah Christenson (S, 6-6, Honolulu, Southern California)
12. Max Holt (MB, 6-10, Cincinnati, Ohio, Penn State)
13. Ben Patch (Opp, 6-8, Provo, Utah, BYU)
14. Micah Ma’a (S, 6-3, Kaneohe, Hawaii, UCLA)
15. Brenden Sander (OH, 6-4, Huntington Beach, Calif., BYU)
18. Jake Langlois (OH, 6-10, San Jose, Calif., BYU)
19. Taylor Averill (MB, 6-7, San Jose, Calif., Hawaii)
20C. 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)
24. Michael Brinkley (L, 5-10, Huntington Beach, Calif., UC Irvine)
26. Kyle Ensing (Opp, 6-7, Valencia, Calif., Long Beach State)
Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coaches: Rob Neilson and Brian Thornton
Team Manager: Nate Ngo
Technical Coordinator: Nate Ngo
Athletic Trainer: Aaron Brock
Team Psychologist: Andrea Becker
Team Doctors: Andrew Gregory and David Dyck
Scout Coach: Jon Parry
U.S. Men’s World Championship Pool Play Schedule
Bari, Italy
All matches will be shown on Flovolleyball.tv, which is a subscription service)
(All times PT)
Sept. 12 at 11:30 a.m.: Serbia
Sept. 13 at 8 a.m.: Australia
Sept. 15 at 11:30 a.m.: Russia
Sept. 16 at 8 a.m.: Cameroon
Sept. 18 at 8 a.m.: Tunisia