Men’s volleyball: U.S. opens Olympic qualifier with 3-1 win over Belgium

Today’s match on replay today (Friday) 2 p.m. HST OLYCH Spectrum 202 and 4 p.m. HST on MBCSN Spectrum 210. May be other replays available.

The U.S. men’s volleyball team, with two players from Hawaii in the starting lineup, opened the Tokyo Qualification Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Belgium in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Setter Micah Christenson (Kamehameha) helped the U.S. hit .586 in the 25-20, 25-19, 17-25, 25-18 victory. Christenson had three blocks and two kills.
Erik Shoji (Punahou) was the libero. No dig stats available.

Also on the roster but not playing were Kawika Shoji (‘Iolani) and Micah Ma’a (Punahou).

“(Belgium) had some amazing plays in the third set,” Christenson said in a press release from USA Volleyball. “I don’t necessarily think we played our best, but we didn’t play bad. We didn’t give up. We expected a battle. I’m super excited about how we responded in the fourth.”

The U.S. will play Korea on Saturday at 7 a.m. HST in the second match of the round-robin tournament. The tournament winner qualifies for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The U.S. plays host Netherlands on Sunday at 4 a.m. HST.

Matches are being shown live on the Olympic Channel (Spectrum 202) and NBCSports.com/live with replays on NBC Sports Network (Spectrum 210).

Also Friday, the Netherlands came back from 0-2 to beat Korea, 23-25, 25-27, 26-24, 25-20, 15-12.