The USA men got swept by Italy on Thursday in Ottawa, Canada, in Volleyball Nations League.
It dropped the team to 2-4 with a match against Serbia (2-3) on Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Sebria swept the Netherlands on Wednesday.
Italy, strenghtening its effort to win a Paris Olympics bid, won 25-23, 26-24, 25-20 behind 12 kills and three blocks from Daniele Lavia and 10 kills from Alessandro Michieletto. Gianluca Galassi added six kills, three blocks and an ace, and Simone Gianelli had three kills, a block and two aces as Italy improved to 5-1. The Italians had seven aces with 11 serving errors and hit .320.
The USA, which hit .201 and had eight errors and three aces, got seven kills and a block from Max Holt and six kills and two blocks from TJ DeFalco. Matt Anderson had five kills and an ace and Aaron Russell had six kills. Erki Shoji had 13 digs.
Italy, which was coming off a five-set defeat to France, has Friday off. In the other matches in Ottawa, Cuba plays Italy and France plays the Netherlands.
In the other pool in Fukuoka, Japan, on Friday, Bulgaris beat Iran in five, Slovenia beat Brazil in five and Poland swept the home team.
