US Olympic Volleyball Team 2012: Blowout Loss a Huge Fail for American Men

The U.S. men's volleyball team was shocked in the quarterfinal round by a miraculous performance from Italy on Wednesday during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

It was a dominating performance by the Italians which prevented the Americans from an encore after taking gold in Beijing four years ago. Italy entered the match as the obvious underdog as they went just 3-2 in group play, whereas the U.S. went 4-1 in a much tougher group and were the favorites.

And for as unexpected as the win by Italy was, the straight set sweep really puts their win into surprising perspective. So, let's take a look at how Team USA failed miserably in London.

They Got Served

The Italians scored nine points off serving aces compared to just two for the United States.

Regardless of how great one team may be, losing a seven-point differential at the beginning of each volley gives the opposition a major advantage. At least a regular volley keeps the ball alive and increases the odds of potential scoring opportunities.

But failing to score aces and allow a touchdown more significantly reduces one's chances. That's nine points the Italians didn't have to work for and they won the final two sets by a combined 10 points. The USA didn't have their A-game at serving or defending serves and it showed.

Italy "Spiked it to 'Em"

Italy's top three spikers—Michal Lasko, Cristian Savani and Ivan Zaytsev—all combined for 36 spikes which was 12 more than the USA. Lasko only scored seven on spikes, but that would have been tied for the second best production on the U.S. while the other 29 came from Savani and Zaytsev.

Clayton Stanley led the Americans with 12 scores on spikes and had a success rate of 28.57 percent. Unfortunately, he was out-shined by Italy's bash brothers of Savani and Zaytsev who were 37.93 and 32.14 percent, respectively.

Team USA was just slammed near the net and had no chance of contending Italy's force. The Italians were able to limit Stanley's success while having three players crush consistently well. Had the U.S. isolated Savani and/or Zaytsev the match may have been closer.

However, this was not the case and it's no surprise the U.S. are going home early.

Defensive Digs

One area that related to Italy's success at spikes were their digs.

Winning by two more percent than the U.S. (11.33 to 9.33) the Italians defense was straight up better. Now, a two percent differential may not seem like a lot, but this also transitions into Italy's offense.

In a nutshell, each time a dig occurs that can be viewed as a two-point swing. The first point is preventing the opponent from scoring and the second is scoring yourself. Italy therefore was able to keep volleys alive much more consistently for its offense and create more spike opportunities.

After all, the United States attempted 29 less spikes (including faults) than Italy which can be attributed to the digs. This simply allowed Italy to position itself for more scoring chances and it's ultimately the core reason why Team USA was upset in emphatic fashion.

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