When USA Volleyball does something right, we have to give credit where credit is due. Right about now, the folks that make up our organizing body are looking like geniuses. No kidding.

As volleyball fans, we spend a lot of time complaining about USAV. What they do, how they do it, who they have or don't have doing it, when they do it, why they do it. We do this for good reason. Because we care about the state of the game, about growing it and about making it better. On that, we can all agree. What we can't seem to agree on is how to go about doing it.

Last week, USAV did something right. The NORCECA event that concluded on Saturday with the USA men qualifying for London was hands down the best thing I've ever seen in my my 20+ years of watching and playing in USAV events. If you weren't able to make it, you really missed something special.

The genius part started with stepping in when an opportunity arose. Puerto Rico had a scheduling conflict that rendered them unable to host the NORCECA qualifier. USAV smartly offered to host the matches in Long Beach, just 20 minutes from the training facility in Anaheim. The Pyramid was a great choice for these matches. Not too big, not too small, great volleyball community, centrally located and easy to get to from almost anywhere in SoCal.

They pulled it together with help from sponsors like UPS, who they couldn't thank enough for their support. They had no idea if they'd be able to draw decent crowds for this event. Volleyball fans don't always show up. Though our teams rarely get to play at home, sometimes the fans leave them hanging out to dry. USAV took the risk. They got a lot of help from some very motivated fans who took attendance and enthusiasm into their own hands by organizing events, providing signs and changing the way we cheer for volleyball. That teamwork led to a fresh, new fan experience.

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I just have to take a moment to pay homage to the crowd last weekend for the men's NCAA final. Whenever nearly 10,000 souls purpose to attend a men's match, we should take the time to acknowledge and celebrate it.

The 9,612 people who attended Saturday's match at the Galen Center made up the third largest crowd in history. We can't call it a record crowd but when you look at the two matches that top it in the record books you realize that it might as well have been.

The most fans ever to attend a men's final was back in 1998. Not only was that a whole 14 years ago, but this match took place in Hawaii which is an outlier for volleyball attendance. Still, this year's match was only 210 people shy of breaking that attendance record.

The second highest draw for a final took place at UCLA a whopping 28 years ago when the top players from the 1984 national champion Bruins were Ricci Luyties and Doug Partie and they played another SoCal team in the Pepperdine Waves. Saturday's final was 197 people short of that record.

It didn't hurt that the home team made the final and that we once again had two SoCal teams in a SoCal arena. 'Eater Nation had to travel a whole hour up the 405 freeway to make the match, but their enthusiastic fans managed large enough numbers to give the USC fans a run for their money.

A record? No. But certainly the best we've seen in a long, long while.

The USA men have begun their quest to qualify for London and have successfully completed their first two matches of the NORCECA tournament. The Americans had no trouble doing away with Trindad & Tobago and Costa Rica, beating both 3-0 with neither opponent scoring more than 14 points in a single set.

The mystery at setter seems to be solved for the moment at Donald Suxho has taken his place at the helm for the Americans. His back up, Brian Thornton, did not see action in the first match but started the third set of the second match.

Besides the usual starters, head coach Alan Knipe has also been using middle blocker Russell Holmes, outside hitter Paul Lotman and Riley Salmon who is back at outside hitter after a brief stint at libero. Opposite Dave McKienzie came in for Clay Stanley in both matches and started the third set against Costa Rica, leading all hitters for the match with eight kills. USA has one more pool play match tonight against Mexico. If they win, they'll skip the quarterfinals on Thursday as the pool winner and head straight to the semi-final on Friday where things should start to get interesting.

In the other pool, Cuba and Canada are both 2-0 and the two will meet each other tonight. The outcome of the match will decide the pool winner. The U.S. will most likely play the loser of the Cuba-Canada match in the semifinals with the final taking place on Saturday night.

Tickets for the matches are still available through the Long Beach State website.

In only the third weekend of FIVB play, the battle for the second U.S. spot in London is heating up on the men's side. Only two teams from each country are allowed into the Olympics and since the U.S. routinely has three teams in the top 10 in the world, the cutoff almost always leads to heartbreak for a deserving team. This year, the fight for the second spot is especially fierce.

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser are the clear No. 1 team with 7,560 points and the No. 2 ranking in the world right now. Beyond that, it is impossible to tell which team will join them in London. The U.S. has two teams that are neck and neck for that second Olympic berth in Fuerbringer/Lucena and Gibb/Rosenthal.

Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena came out of the blocks quickly, making it to the final of the first tournament and opening up some ground on fellow Americans Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb. But just two weeks later, Gibb and Rosie have shown they aren't going down without a fight. This week, they matched Fuerbringer and Lucena, getting all the way to the final in Shanghai.

Now Gibb and Rosenthal are only 100 points behind Fuerbringer and Lucena in the battle for No. 2. There's no room for bad weeks for either team from here on out, the stakes are too high and the score is too close.

On the women's side, the battle is not as tight, but it could still turn on just a few good or bad performances. It looks like Kerri and Misty are virtually assured to be in London fighting for their third straight gold medal. As of right now, the No. 2 U.S. spot belongs to Kessy and Ross, but Fendrick and Hansen could have a shot if they perform well. At the moment, Kessy and Ross have a huge lead - they are 2,320 points ahead of Fendrick and Hansen.

There are just seven tournaments remaining for the men and six left for the women before the Olympics. This one is going to be fun to follow.