Luxembourg
Monaco was able to overcome San Marino by 3:1 in the competition opener. Then the home guys pleased the crowd by shutting out Iceland. With Cyprus joining the battles on Wednesday a single round robin with 5 teams will determine the winner. The women’s tournament, with 4 teams, is also set to start on Wednesday. CEV Senior Vice President Aleksandar Boričić is in attendance of all the volleyball action at the Games.
Monaco and San Marino put up a fight that lasted almost two hours. After a thrilling fourth set, head coach Dragan Pezelj’s team closed the match at 3:1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 26-24). San Marino started the game well and was able to counter the great Monegasque blocking efforts with an error-free play that led to a 25-22 in the first set. However, the unforced mistakes started coming in large numbers in the second set and Monaco took advantage of this to win it by 25-22 and tie the match. The next two sets were very tight. More productive offense gave Monaco the third part at 25-23. In set 4 both teams showed some tremendous blocking and after several changes in the lead it was once again Monaco that took the win by 26-24 and emerged victorious. San Marino’s Francesco Tabbarini was the game’s top scorer with 28 points, while Dragan Pezelj with 22 was most prolific for the winning team.
Luxembourg defeated Iceland in straight sets, but two of the three parts of this game were very close and finished by a minimal margin – 3:0 (25-23, 29-27, 25-15). The home guys lagged behind through the second technical time-out of the first set, but then their more aggressive attacking helped them take charge and turn it around for the final 25-23. The second set lasted 34 minutes to go into overtime for the eventual 29-27. Luxembourg made too many errors in this set, but once again compensated with better offense. The third set was pretty one-sided and head coach Burkhard Disch’s team was quick to close it at 25-15. Franisek Vosahlo tallied 13 points for Luxembourg to top the scorers’ chart. Robert Karl Hlodversson was Iceland’s most productive playet with 11 points.
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