At courtside for a five-set thriller

MICHAEL VILLANI

“U.S. men win incredible match” could be the headline, but the story

goes far beyond that.

I really had to do some hand-sitting at court side for this one.

Our men’s national indoor volleyball team never looked better or more

intimidating than in its quarterfinal match against Greece. Peace and

Friendship Stadium was packed to its 17,000-seat capacity. The high

pitched chants of “Hellas, Hellas,” the Greek spelling of the word

Greece, thundered throughout the venue. The mostly-Greek crowd

erupted with every Greek score.

The noise was deafening.

Our guys won the first set -- not handily but looking very strong

and confident nonetheless. The Greeks won the second, though it was

close. Then they took the third, a bit easier. I’m thinking, uh-oh,

the momentum is changing here. You could feel the confidence of the

U.S. fans, interspersed throughout the crowd, waning. Being so close

to the action, I could see the look in the guys’ eyes, still

confident, yet now concerned, being down two to one.

The big, powerful Greeks got the serve to open the fourth set.

They got the point, then another and another, and suddenly at the

first technical time out, Greece led 8-1. It wasn’t looking good!

The Greek’s attempted to thwart a kill, and their big,

6-foot-8-inch middle blocker Theodoros Chatziantoniou came down on

the foot of one of his teammates, tearing ligaments in his ankle. As

he’s writhing in agony, you could feel the determination of his

comrades to end this thing, to put away the Americans. They were

furious in their assault, running the score to 10-5, then 17-9. It

looked pretty hopeless; we were going to be knocked out of the medal

round in swift fashion.

We finally get the serve again at 20-12. Then a most-incredible

thing happened. The Americans, with steely determination, ran off

eight straight scores, bringing it even, 20-20. They slowly and

methodically went to work on the last five points, ending the set in

front, 25-23.

It was one of the most gut-wrenching, exhilarating fourth-set

comebacks in the three weeks I’ve been calling these matches. The

momentum had changed again. The fifth and tie-breaking set was hard

fought with the Americans coming out on top 17-15, and the small but

enthusiastic crowd of Americans went wild.

As you probably already know, the American women lost in a

five-set heartbreaker -- after being down two sets to zero -- to

Brazil the night before.

On another note, I just had Jonathan Fogarty -- the very talented

and cleaver Australian announcer for beach volleyball -- get

autographs from beach legend Sinjin Smith and local Misty May for

Judy Straub Adams’ granddaughter, Alexandra, who lives in Phoenix. As

you also know by now, Misty and partner Kerri Walsh have claimed the

gold. Was Misty really hurt? I’m sure she wasn’t 100%, but it didn’t

matter.

What an exhibition, as she and Kerri plowed through the

competition.

I had the day off today, before the medal rounds, and played golf

at the only golf links in Athens, the Glafada Golf Course. It’s an

18-hole, par-72 layout that used to be home to several European

tours. It’s something of a goat path now; the greens are in nowhere

near the condition of the ones at Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club,

but since I was really missing my Saturday morning outing, I made the

best of it.

Besides, I’m playing golf in Greece and getting paid for it, as I

report “From the Games.”