1. Taylor Sander and Ben Patch are the leading hitters on the team. Ben Patch has the highest %. Taylor Sander is the captain and clear leader of the team.
2. Because USA is hosting the final for the VNL it has an automatic birth into the finals. Given this luxury, the coaches played a bunch of young/first time players to get them integrated into the team in the first round of play (resulting in some extra losses). Also, because of this they are keeping the core players like Taylor Sander, Micah Christensen, etc. home to train for the finals next week and sending the young guys to play in Bulgaria. Not clear whether Patch will go to Bulgaria or not.
3. Lots of BYU talk on the broadcast. Even spoke at length about Mary Lake having success on the women’s national team. Talked about her still having a year of eligibility left at BYU. Also a story about Mary Lake getting stuck in China for a week due to a lost/stolen passport. That must have been scary for her.