USA enjoy successful debut at packed South Paris Arena

The first day of the Paris 2024 Olympics volleyball tournament had an appropriate ending on Saturday, with packed stands at the South Paris Arena 1 and an elite-level match played in an electric atmosphere, which had the United States topping Argentina 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-16) to secure three important points in Pool C.

The result places the Americans at the top of the standings in the pool ahead of Germany (two) and Japan (one) at the conclusion of the first round of matches and gives them 10.46 FIVB World Ranking points that kept the team in sixth place – Argentina didn’t collect any points in the pool, but were also able to preserve their ninth place in the World Rankings despite the defeat.

With over 10,000 fans cheering on the stands, the Americans fed from their energy to produce a dominant performance and counted on productive nights by outside hitters Aaron Russell, who led the team with 16 points (13 kills, three aces), and TJ Defalco, who added another 14 (nine kills, four aces, one block), to beat the Argentineans for a third time in the last four encounters.

"The atmosphere was amazing," setter Micah Christenson said. "I can't thank the fans enough for filling the stands tonight, we felt a lot of support on our side of the net, which was pretty spectacular. We never expect to get a 3-0 win in an Olympic match, but we'll take it. We played great volleyball and showed a lot of our strengths as a team. These three points are really important, but the job is far from finished. We were entirely focused on Argentina and now we'll look into Germany, who are also a very good team."

Serving was at the core of the American strong performance as they outscored their opponents by eight points to zero in that skill, besides also dominating in blocks (six to three) and kills (38 to 33).

Middle blocker Agustin Loser, with eight points, and opposite Bruno Lima and outside hitter Facundo Conte, with seven each, were Argentina's main scorers in the match.

"We had a tough match and the United States played very well," Lima commented. "Their serving was really good and their blocking and defense created a lot of problems to us. We managed to start all three sets well, but couldn't keep our rhythm until the end. We have two more matches and still have chances to qualify, so we'll try our best against Japan and Germany. I'm sure nothing will be decided until the last day and we'll be ready for the next battles."

The score remained close during the first half of the opening set, with Conte leading the Argentinean offense and Defalco scoring at a high clip for the Americans. The first break happened when a pair of offensive errors by the South Americans gave their opponents a 16-12 lead. The USA managed to keep their edge until the end and won the set 25-20 after Russell scored with a powerful spike.

Argentina started the second set stronger and quickly created a 5-2 lead with a spike by Palonsky. Their advantage didn’t last long, though, as Russell leveled the score in nine points by tooling the opposing block and then scored four more, including three straight from the service line, to put the Americans ahead at 14-10. After remaining in control until the end, the Americans secured their 25-19 victory with another ace, this one from Defalco.

The third set started as the second ended – with Defalco firing an ace – and that set the tone for what was to come as after just a few minutes they already had a 5-2 lead. Their game continued to flow and their advantage turned into a comfortable 15-7, which forced Argentina into a timeout. The break, however, didn't alter the pace of the match and the Americans confirmed their opening-match victory with a 25-16 victory in the set, sealed with another Russell swing.

Paris 2024 – Match Schedule and Results

The two teams will continue their campaigns in Paris on different days as the Americans will now face Germany on Tuesday, at 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT), while the Argentineans will meet Japan one day later, also at 13:00 local time. Earlier on Saturday, the Germans topped the Japanese in five sets in the Paris 2024 men's volleyball tournament opening match.

Women start competing on Sunday

Sunday will mark the start of the women’s tournament in Paris, with Italy playing the Dominican Republic at 9:00 local time (7:00 GMT) in Pool C and Poland battling Japan at 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT) in Pool B.

Later in the day, the men’s tournament will continue with the first two matches in Pool A - France vs. Serbia at 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT) and Slovenia vs. Canada at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

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