POOL C (Bari, Italy)
Serbia recorded tougher win than expected on Day 1 of the Qualifier (Pool C, Bari, Italy). The Balkan side outpowered Australia in 4 sets of which the 4th was a battle to the last drop of sweat: 3-1 (26-28, 25-19, 25-19, 32-30).
Serbia had a chance to open a duel with the lead in sets of 1-0 but failed to convert 3 set points. The team coached by Nikola Grbić needed 6 match points in the 4th set to close the match.
Aleksandar Atanasijević made a surreal serving display (8 aces), finishing the match with 35 points (65.8% attack). Luke Smith (3 aces) and Paul Carroll top-scored for Australia with 17 points apiece. Trent O’Dea made 5 kill blocks.
As it was predicted, the hosts Italy surpassed Cameroon without having difficulties whatsoever, giving a nice gift to their setter Simone Giannelli who turned 23 today.
An interesting thing happened during warm-up when one player of an African side had different numbers in the front and on the back of his jersey. Cédric Bitouna wore the number 9 in front and number 6 on the back so referees had to intervene. Also, 7 players of Cameroon national team arrived in Italy this morning, only several hours prior to the match, waiting for the issues with the national federation to be resolved.
Osmany Juantorena top-scored for Italy with 13 points. Arthur Voukeng scored 9 for Cameroon.
FIVB Men’s Volleyball International Qualifier, Day 1:
Brazil – Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-19)
Egypt – Bulgaria 1-3 (11-25, 31-33, 25-19, 19-25)
POOL B (Rotterdam, the Netherlands):
Netherlands – South Korea 3-2 (23-25, 25-27, 26-24, 25-20, 15-12)
Belgium vs. USA 1-3 (20-25, 19-25, 25-17, 18-25)
POOL C (Bari, Italy):
Australia – Serbia 1-3 (28-26, 19-25, 19-25, 30-32)
Italy – Cameroon 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-16)
Poland – Tunisia 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-19)
France – Slovenia 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-23)
POOL E (Saint Petersburg, Russia):
Iran – Cuba 3-2 (23-25, 26-28, 25-17, 25-16, 15-10)
Russia – Mexico 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-17)
China – Finland 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23)
Canada – Argentina 1-3 (23-25, 25-22, 25-27, 23-25)
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