Surprise, surprise. Our very own Thomas Jaeschke has made the cut as expected.

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/F ... -Mens-Team

I was a little worried recently. He apparently suffered an ankle injury a few weeks ago in Cuba in a USA-Cuba friendly. He was not on last weekend's World League roster but the fact that he was named to the Olympic roster tells me it was not a serious injury.

Just updated Jaeschke's Wikipedia page and added his name to the Loyola Alumni page under sports.

That is very cool. I'm glad that his decision to leave school early has apparently paid off for him.

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Any predictions on whether the USA will get a medal?

The outdated rankings from last October have the USA at #5 in the World. Brazil is #1 followed by Poland, Russia, Italy, and the USA. All 5 teams have qualified for Rio.

The current World League (annual International Competition) Final Round of 6 teams include the USA, Brazil, Russia, and Italy.

Brazil, on home soil, took care of the USA in 4 sets early in the World League pool play. Record-wise, both teams are currently 8-1 and tied for the best record. Besides Brazil, the USA has not lost more than 1 set to any other team in this competition that has qualified for the Olympics or the top 20 in the World.

I expect the USA to at least play on the final day and at least for a bronze medal but the competition is fierce.

The USA finished 5th overall in the World League Final round of 6 teams. In its 3 team pool, the USA lost to Italy 3-1 and lost to Brazil 3-2
(after after being up 2-0). Thus, the USA did not advance to single elimination and finished tied for 5th overall.

Italy jumped out 2-0 on the USA. Thomas Jaeschke came off the bench to play Outside in the 3rd and 4th set. He had 8 kills and 1 ace.

The USA led Brazil 2-0 before losing the match. Jaeschke came off the bench to play Outside in the 4th and 5th set. He had 7 kills.

Channel 5 just ran a nice story on Jaeschke and his road to the Olympics, featuring interviews with his parents and twin sister and Coach Hulsce. One interesting point was that the reason he left Loyola early was that playing professionally was his best chance for making the Olympic team.

Very cool!

While looking for the video I just found an article about him from NBCChicago from a couple days ago.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/th ... 65402.html

It totally made sense when he left. I recently listened to an interview US Head Coach John Speraw did a couple years ago. He was talking about the team and all the young guys and the need to play some pro ball before the Olympics.


EDIT: 5 days later I find out the video was in this article! Channel 5 replayed the segment on Sports Sunday a couple nights ago.

Jaeschke also just did an interview with Vinnie Lopes at Off The Block.

http://www.offtheblockblog.com/2016/07/ ... -olympics/