Just got done watching live the U.S. men’s thrilling, five-set (25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13) win over Russia in the indoor volleyball semifinals. It is the first time the U.S. men will play for gold since 1988. U.S. coach Hugh McCutcheon continues to deal with the emotional fallout from the murder Aug. 9 of his father-in-law and serious wounding of his mother-in-law by an assailant in Beijing. He has said that he is trying to compartmentalize his emotions during the Games and that the arena offers a sort of sanctuary. I am not sure how he does it.

It’s not easy to find much on the Web about Russian volleyballer Yury Berezhko. One of the few tidbits I was able to uncover was that his favorite kind of music is “club music,” which would make him gay in the U.S. but in Europe makes him like just about everybody else. He’s one of the stars of his team, and they’ve just advanced to the semifinals after a five-set win over Bulgaria. At 24 years and 6-foot-6, if the volleyball thing doesn’t work out for him, I’m sure Abercrombie & Fitch could find something for him to do.

What a thrilling quarterfinal match in women’s volleyball between the U.S. and Italy. The Americans were down 2 sets to 1 after losing the third set badly, 25-19, but they stormed back to win the fourth set and crushed the defending World Cup champions in the tiebreaker, 15-6. The star was Lindsey Berg, who substituted in late and sparked the Americans on their come-from-behind run. One question for volleyballers: Why are the first four sets played to 25 points, but the crucial fifth set is played to only 15? Seems odd to me.

The Summer Olympics just keep getting bigger. There are 302 gold medals up for grabs in Beijing. That’s a gold medal every 47 minutes for the sixteen-day span of the games. Doesn’t sound so special when it’s put that way, does it? But is that BMX gold medal really as significant as the historic one Michael Phelps won last night? No, and there are good reasons why. Follow the jump for an in-depth analysis of the most valuable gold medals and the sports that don’t even deserve to be in the Olympics.

Pepperdine University is just up the coast from where I live and although I can’t say I’m a fan of their religious bent I can say that I was a fan of their volleyball team, the Pepperdine Waves. The school had a great record in the sport, it was well supported by the student body, and the atmosphere in their gym was exciting. Among the many excellent players to recently go through the school was 25 year old, 6′9″ outside hitter Sean Rooney. I watched him transform from a lanky, slightly impatient sophomore to a team MVP senior over the seasons. Eventually, he led his team to an NCAA championship. He dominated the net when he was on the court and the walls of the gym would echo when one of his kills struck the floor on the opponent’s side.