Big wins for both major programs in the USA Volleyball world yesterday, as the US Men’s team coached by on-leave Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe swept China at home in their first US match since winning the gold.

They swept 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 before a crowd of 4,315 on Friday in an FIVB World League match at the San Jose State University Event Center Arena.

With the victory, the U.S. improves to 4-1 in Group A. China falls to 1-4.

“For our first opportunity to play at home, a lot of the guys were really anxious to get on the court,” U.S. Head Coach Alan Knipe (Huntington Beach, Calif.) said. “I thought, once we settled down, we did good things.”

And the Women’s National team, also playing in America at the University of Miami, defeated Costa Rica in a sweep in their opener of the Pan-American Cup, taking the match 25-7, 25-6, 25-16.

The U.S., hosting its first international volleyball tournament since 2000, returns to action on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET versus Guatemala, which lost to Puerto Rico earlier today.

“This was a nice start to the tournament,” U.S. Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon said. “Costa Rica is a good team, and it showed in the third set. I was glad to see that we managed the game well in the first two sets.”  The Women’s team features two Long Beach State alums (and Olympians), Danielle Scott-Arruda, who started at middle, and Tayyiba Haneef-Park, who contributed off the bench.

“My compliments to the Costa Rica team,” Scott-Arruda said. “They fought hard to the end. Any time you win 3-0 is good, but we need to work on minimizing our errors. It was good to play at home.”