U.S. Team Pays Back Korea in Three Games : Volleyball: After losing night before, Americans win, 15-3, 15-7, 15-11, before embarking on trip.

By JOHN WEYLER

June 10, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

IRVINE — The U.S. volleyball team, set to depart on a trip that makes the worst NBA or NHL travel schedule seem like a run to the grocery store, didn’t want to leave home without a World League victory over Korea.

After all, the Koreans were 0-4 before upsetting the United States in four games Saturday night at the San Diego Sports Arena.

“We can’t afford to lose home matches,” U.S. setter Javier Gaspar said. “We knew we should have beaten them, and we wanted to send them a clear message that that match was a fluke.”

So, Sunday night at UC Irvine’s Bren Center, the Americans sent Korea to defeat in three consecutive games, 15-3, 15-7, 15-11. Now the U.S. team can begin an eight-match trip that includes two games in the Soviet Union, two in Italy, two in Japan and two in Korea with a clear conscience and a 4-2 record.

“This group has a lot of pride and I think we were all very disappointed in ourselves (Saturday) night,” Coach Fred Sturm said. “But we were able to put that behind us and I think we played our best complete match of the season (Sunday night).”

The Korean team may have been several thousand miles from home, but about half of the 1,518 spectators on hand Sunday night were pulling for the visitors. Some were even waving Korean flags.

Thanks to an erratic Korean offense and some solid blocking by the United States, those fans didn’t have much to cheer about. The Korean team did play some spectacular defense, however, diving for saves inches from the floor to keep rallies alive.

“They make you work for everything,” said middle blocker Dan Hanan, a former Edison High School standout who made his first start Sunday night. “You think you have the kill, but they keep bringing it back and you have to keep hammering away at them.”

Hanan hammered out 19 kills, second to teammate Allen Allen’s 21. Laguna Beach’s Scott Fortune and Bryan Ivie each had 18. Jong-Hwa Ha had 20 for Korea.

Hanan, who had seven kills and a block in the first game, finished off the opener with three powerful spikes for kills. Front-line dominance carried the Americans, who scored four times when Korea spiked the ball out of bounds and three times on blocks en route to the first-game victory.

The second game ended very much like the first. Eric Sato, a defensive and serving specialist who came in to serve for the final three points in Game 1, returned to serve with the United States leading, 14-7. His dipping jump serve was popped over the net by a diving Ho-In Kang, and Hanan slammed it back into the floor for game point.

The third game was the most competitive with Korea taking a 1-0 lead. The Koreans rebounded from an 8-3 deficit to take an 11-10 lead, but the United States regained the momentum on two kills by Hanan and two by Fortune. The game, like the first two, ended with a Hanan spike.

“We just knew if we put it together we could beat these guys,” Hanan said. “Everybody in our locker room knew that.”