Hanes' Six Aces Power USA Past Italy Into VNL Semifinal

The United States booked the third semifinal spot at the men's Volleyball Nations League Finals with a straight-set sweep of world champions Italy in Ningbo, China, on Thursday. The Americans won 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) to reach the VNL semifinals for the fifth time, and for the first time since 2023.

USA fired 14 aces in the match compared to Italy's five, a key factor in the win. Opposite Jake Hanes was the standout performer, contributing six aces, two block kills, and 13 attack points for a match-high 21 points. Outside hitter Matthew Anderson added 15 points with a 67% attack success rate, while Ethan Champlin scored 10 points and sealed both the first and third sets with key kills.

Speaking to Volleyball World about his serving performance, Hanes said: "It's more of a feeling than a thinking thing. You just have to trust yourself. I think we all did a good job of trying to stay aggressive against a really good side-out team. So, we had to come together and hit some good serves and it ended up working out for us."

For Italy, opposite Yuri Romano led scoring with 16 points, and outside hitter Mattia Bottolo added 14. Italy outperformed the Americans only in blocking, 4-3. Romano commented afterward: "They are a strong team, we know that. They played well. I think we also played quite well, but the problem was with reception. When we played the ball, we were good, but we allowed too many aces and that's it – when you don't hold your side-out, it's difficult. The positive takeaway from this VNL is that we played with a lot of players, also some very good young ones, who played very well during the VNL. So, we start from this for the European Championship."

The United States will face undefeated Japan in Saturday's semifinal.