BEIJING —
After a prolonged pre-match moment of silence, the United States men's volleyball team opened its 2008 Beijing Olympic run with a hard-fought five-set victory Sunday over upset-minded Venezuela.The Americans won the first two sets by identical 25-18 scores, dropped the next two 25-22 and 25-21, before claiming the fifth and final game 15-10.While the U.S. opener was supposed to mark the Olympic-era start of new head coach Hugh McCutcheon, the New Zealand native and former BYU player and assistant coach was absent following the stabbing Saturday of his in-laws at a Beijing tourist attraction.
Todd Bachman was killed by a lone assailant and Barbara Bachman underwent eight hours of surgery because of life-threatening knife wounds suffered in the attack at the Drum Tower. The assailant then killed himself by leaping off the second story of the structure.Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon, a former Olympian and U.S. women's volleyball team member, was present at the incident but not injured."It's kind of an unthinkable tragedy, especially at a time like this when Hugh has put in so much time and effort getting us to this point," said U.S. libero Rich Lambourne, who along with former BYU teammate and current Olympic teammate Ryan Millar played for McCutcheon when he was BYU assistant coach from 1995 to 2001.
Millar had nine spikes and three blocks in the match. Lambourne played the libero position the entire match."Our hearts and our thoughts and our prayers go out to their family," continued Lambourne. "I was saying to Ryan, I have zero frame of reference as to how to deal emotionally with something of this level. We're just trying to do the best we can and to help Hugh out and his family out the best we can."A former BYU player from 1991 to 1993, McCutcheon joined the coaching staff of Cougar head coach Carl McGown, who is assisting the U.S. team at the Beijing Games as a scout and adviser. Rob Browning, the U.S. team leader in Beijing, was another former Cougar player also on McGown's staff, serving as a volunteer assistant.Together, Lambourne and Millar led on the court and McGown, McCutcheon and Browning guided on the sidelines when the Cougars won their first NCAA national championship. McGown and McCutcheon were around for BYU's second NCAA crown in 2001.The BYU ties go even further with Team USA. Assistant coach Ron Larsen, who took over coaching duties in McCutcheon's absence Sunday, played on the Cougars' club volleyball team before it became NCAA-sanctioned and graduated from BYU. And fellow assistant Marv Dunphy, the longtime Pepperdine coach, earned his doctorate degree from BYU.The hurting continued Sunday, no matter how close or distant the connection."It's a difficult situation for everybody," said Millar. "I can't even imagine how Hugh and Wiz are dealing with this. It's very devastating news that we got, and everybody just feels really terrible for him."As a last-minute tribute to their coach and his in-laws, the U.S. players converged for a team huddle after pre-game introductions — in a prolonged embrace and extended moment of silence — and wrote the Bachmans' initials on the back of their shoes."Those are two 'stupid' things that we thought we could do in their memory," said Millar, letting them now that we were thinking of them, wishing them well.And McCutcheons absence Sunday was a lingering reminder to the players of the previous day's tragedy."It's obviously a noticeable thing that we don't have Hugh on the sideline, and that kind of triggers the thoughts of his in-laws and his family," said Lambourne. "To a certain extent, once the game starts, we try to focus on the task at hand, but there is a little bit of that hanging over it, sadly."Said Browning: "Hugh has been in touch with the team throughout this tragedy, and we're extremely proud of the strength he and Elisabeth are displaying. They know we're here for them in every way possible."We're banding together as a team to lift up the Bachmans and McCutcheons," Browning added. "We are a family, and we'll get through this together as a family."The
American men are ranked third in the world behind powerhouse Brazil and
Russia. Last month, the team claimed the FIVB World League title, a
first for the men, with a victory over Serbia in Rio de Janeiro.
Venezuela was making its first-ever Olympic appearance.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com