Australian men’s volleyball team sweeps Venezuela on opening day: FIVB Men's World Olympic Qualifier
The opening day of the FIVB Men's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament saw a match being held between the Australian and the Venezuelan volleyball team on June 1, Friday.
The competition took place in the capital of Japan while the venue of the match was the Tokyo Metropolitan Gym.
The crowd did not have to wait too long as the Australians were able to earn a win by making a clean sweep over their opponents. The Venezuelans were handed a defeat at the following final set scores: 25-14, 25-22 and 25-18.
The coach of the winning team, Jon Uriarte, expressed his jubilation at the victory while speaking at the press conference in the following manner, “It was a particular challenge in this first match. It is always tough in the opening match. We have a younger
team now without as many veterans as in the past. Playing consistent was a challenge for us.”
On the other hand, the coach of the losing team, Roberto Garcia, shared his views by making the following statements, “My strategy was for us to make strong serves and create errors on their receptions. It was not successful. I tried to play systematically
in the second set, but this also failed.”
The first set of the game saw the Australians take a quick lead at 4-1 that resulted in an early call for a time out from the Venezuelan quarters. However, the pause did not favour the Venezuelans as the Australians were able to extend their advantage till
7-4. The coming of the first and the second time outs also showed the Australians leading in scores and they did not let go of their dominance until the end at 25-14.
The second set was the most competitive if all as both the teams kept the score close and made the frame reach a tie at 11-11. Despite the fact that the Venezuelans kept the chase close, they still could not manage to race ahead and lost the set at 22-25.
The third set did not see any sparks fly from the Venezuelan side and the Australians did not have a hard time in bagging themselves a win at 25-18.
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