Players are being called back to the U.S. Men’s headquarters at the American Sports Center in Anaheim on Dec. 23. It is not known how many players from the 19-man roster will be returning. Most of the U.S. players from the 12-man World Cup team went straight from Japan to their international club teams.

The other teams that have confirmed they are competing in the qualification championship are Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Mexico and Dominican Republic. All competed at the 2007 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship in Anaheim, Calif.

Only the winning team at the NORCECA qualifier will earn a spot at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

Should the U.S. Men still have to qualify after Puerto Rico, they will have an opportunity at one of the following three tournaments:

*May 23-25 in Dusseldorf, Germany there will be a four-team qualifier with Germany plus three teams decided by drawing of lots.
*May 30-June 1 in Espinho, Portugal there will be a four-team qualifier with Portugal plus three teams decided by drawing of lots.
*May 31-June 8 in Tokyo, Japan there will be an eight-team qualifier with Japan plus the four Asian teams best-ranked in the Asian Continental Championship (Australia, Korea, Iran, Thailand) plus three teams decided by drawing of lots.

Drawing of lots: Three best-ranked teams from Europe, two from NORCECA, one from South America, one from Africa, two from Asia (Indonesia, Chinese Taipei). The drawing of lots will be conducted in February 2008 in Japan, at the end of all Continental Olympic Qualification Tournaments.

Following its fourth-place finish at the FIVB World Cup, Team USA’s world ranking has improved from fifth to third behind Brazil and Russia. Nevertheless, it can expect a battle from several NORCECA teams, particularly Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico, which defeated the United States in four sets at the World Cup and went on to finish sixth.

Puerto Rico qualified for the World Cup by finishing second to the United States at the NORCECA championship. The United States was the only team to beat Puerto Rico in that tournament.

Playing Puerto Rico at home will be difficult, said U.S. Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon.

“We expect Puerto Rico’s fans to be out in force,” McCutcheon said. “It will be like playing Poland in Poland or Brazil in Brazil.”

Puerto Rico’s Hector Soto, who played collegiately in the United States at Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne under Head Coach Arnie Ball, who is U.S. setter Lloy Ball’s father, was the overall leading scorer at both the NORCECA Championship and World Cup tournaments.

In Puerto Rico’s final World Cup match, Soto scored 43 points on 43 kills in Korea’s five-set victory.

2008 NORCECA Men’s Continental Olympic Qualification Championship
U.S. Men’s Preliminary Roster

(No., Name, Position, Height, Hometown, College)

1 Lloy Ball (S, 6-8, Woodburn, Ind., Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne)
2 Sean Rooney (OH, 6-9, Wheaton, Ill., Pepperdine)
3 Jim Polster (OH, 6-6, Laguna Niguel, Calif., Long Beach State)
4 David Lee (MB, 6-8, Alpine, Calif., Long Beach State)
5 Rich Lambourne (L, 6-3, Tustin, Calif., BYU)
6 Phil Eatherton (MB, 6-9, Glencoe, Mo., Ball State)
7 Donald Suxho (S, 6-5, Korce, Albania, USC)
8 Reid Priddy (OH, 6-5, Richmond, Va., Loyola Marymount)
9 Ryan Millar (MB, 6-8, Palmdale, Calif., BYU)
10 Riley Salmon (OH, 6-6, League City, Texas, Pierce College)
11 Brook Billings (OPP, 6-5, Santa Barbara, Calif., USC)
12 Tom Hoff (MB, 6-8, Park Ridge, Ill., Long Beach State)
13 Clay Stanley (OPP, 6-9, Honolulu, Hawai’i, Hawai’i)
14 Kevin Hansen (S, 6-5, Newport Beach, Calif., Stanford)
15 Gabe Gardner (OPP, 6-9, San Clemente, Calif., Stanford)
16 Evan Patak (OPP, 6-8, Pleasanton, Calif., UC Santa Barbara)
17 Delano Thomas (MB, 6-7, Sacramento, Calif., Hawai’i)
18 Scott Touzinsky (OH, 6-7, St. Louis, Mo., Long Beach State)
19 Alfred Reft (L, 5-10, Oxnard, Calif., Hawai’i)