FIVB 2010 World Championship’s third round opening matches recap
The first matches of the third round of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball were completed Monday in Italy. Of the 24 teams that entered the tournament, 12 remain, spread out over four pools.
Pool O
The first match of Pool O saw the United States defeat France 3-0 in straight sets (25-16, 25-14, 25-23). Clayton Stanley of the US stood out as the best player in the match, scoring 14 points, with four
blocks and four aces. Sean Rooney and David Lee each had 11 points, and William Priddy added another 10.
The US beat France in blocks 17-7, and had five aces to France’s one.
The win puts the US in a good position to advance to the fourth round. They’ll take on Italy on Tuesday, and the final match will take place on Wednesday between Italy and France.
Pool P
Serbia beat Argentina 3-1 (25-15, 21-25, 25-22, 25-18) to open Pool P. Argentina committed 40 errors compared to Serbia’s 24. Facundo Conte scored 16 points for Argentina, and Federico Pereyra had another
13, but the errors prevented Argentina from having much of a chance against a strong Serbian team.
Serbia will take on Russia on Tuesday, and Argentina will have a chance to redeem themselves against the Russians on Wednesday.
Pool Q
Bulgaria beat Spain 3-1 (25-21, 27-25, 26-28, 25-18) in the first match of Pool Q. Bulgarian Todor Aleksiev was the top scorer of the match with 18 points, and Matey Kaziyski was right behind him with
17 points. Serdio Noda led Spain with 17 points, and Iban Perez added another 16.
Overall the match was close with two of the four sets needing extra points to decide the winner, but mistakes in the fourth and final set took any chance of an upset away from the Spanish.
Spain will take on Cuba on Tuesday in an attempt to earn a spot in the fourth round, while Bulgaria will face Cuba on Wednesday.
Pool R
The defending world champion Brazil team took a step towards the fourth round with a victory over the Czech Republic to start the Pool R matchups. Brazil won 3-2 (25-20, 22-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-8) in
the closest match of the third round so far.
Down 2-1, Brazil rallied by out-blocking the Czechs significantly in the final two sets, and 16-5 overall. Murilo Endres scored 25 points for Brazil, and Peter Plantenik scored 19 for the Czechs.
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