Olympic Shorts

The U.S. men's volleyball team has only four returnees from its 1984 gold medal squad, but the Americans were still the favorites as they came roaring into the 1988 preliminary rounds. Playing at first with the poise and confidence of veterans, they easily knocked off Japan and subdued a strong Dutch team coached by Arie Selinger, who guided the U.S. women to a silver medal in 1984. Then the Americans dropped the first two games of their best- of-five match with Argentina. "We were overconfident," admits Marv Dunphy, the U.S. men's coach since 1985. "We were waiting for them to make mistakes so we could win it. But the Argentines are too good for that sort of approach." Thanks to a sustained come-from-behind drive, the Yanks won the next three games and the match.

In their face-off against a fast and scrappy French team, the defending champions once again started out slowly. The French came close to winning the first game until the U.S. rallied behind the strong spikes of Steve Timmons and narrowly edged out their opponents. The victory awakened the slow-starting Americans, who have been playing early-morning games throughout the series to accommodate prime-time TV coverage. They won the second game easily, and after losing the lead for a time in the third, finally put the French away.

The U.S. team will have to be alert and confident in the medal round, where they will probably meet the potent Brazilians and the powerful Soviets, who have been top contenders in Olympic volleyball since the American-invented game was introduced into the Games in 1964.