The machine known as the U.S. men’s volleyball team sputtered and unexpectedly hit a wall in the Olympic quarterfinals in 2012 in London and left without a medal. Italy had a more difficult time in its quarterfinal against Iran, winning, 31-29, 25-19, 25-17. This will be the second meeting between the U.S. and Italy in Rio, with Italy winning the first match during pool play. “We were fighting for our lives already after the second match. The score in that second set was 18-13 – we were down – and we just looked at each other.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 18, 2016 00:03 UTC