Bulgaria edges out Italy to finish the preliminaries with 4-1 record – Volleyball News
Bulgaria men’s national volleyball team posted 3-0 (32-30, 25-20, and 25-19) victory over Italy in the final match of first round of the Olympic volleyball tournament on Monday.
In front of 14,000 spectators, Bulgarian team staged a great volleyball battle with Italian counterparts and clinched success. Victory in the last match of prelims moved Bulgaria to 4-1 in the competition, while Italy ended with win/loss record of 3-2. Bulgaria
finished as the top team in Pool A of the tournament, whereas Italy claimed fourth spot. However, both teams qualified for the quarterfinals.
Three Bulgarian players contributed double-figure score. Tsvetan Sokolov topped all the scorers with match-high 21 points, which included 17 spikes, two blocks and 2 serve aces. He followed by Todor Aleksiev and Viktor Yosifov with 13 and 10 points respectively.
The trio of Bulgarian team created a lot of trouble for the opponents. On the other hand, Italy's Ivan Zaytsev and Michal Lasko added 15 and 14 points, in the failing effort.
Opening stanza of the match featured a balanced action from both sides. Bulgaria came up with strong offense, while Italy also responded in the same tone. As a result, the spectators got to see some extreme action on the centre court. Bulgarian attackers
came into stride with Italians. The back n forth action continued until Bulgaria hit the final shot and secured first set at 32-30.
After winning the first set, Bulgarian team enjoyed good rhythm and tone. They remained on the same course in the second set and tried to put more pressure on the rival side. Italy had a tough time to deal with swinging cross court shots by Sokolov, who
enjoyed a top form in the match. Italian side struggled to catch up with Bulgaria, but lagged behind. The scoreboard showed better status of Bulgaria. Second set ended with the final score of 25-20, while Bulgaria emerged successful.
Italy threw everything in attack and used many different tactics in third set. However, nothing could stop Bulgaria from winning third set at 25-19. Bulgarian team won third set in row and declared match victory.
“We are angry because what happened on the court was exactly what happened two days ago (when Italy played Australia), but the quality of our opponents was higher today and it was more difficult for us to come back. Now we have 48 hours to see what we are
made of. I've seen them play very well, but also very badly. Volleyball is a strange sport, everyone thought Bulgaria was coming in poor shape and now they have won the pool,” said Italian coach Mauro Berruto.
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