Greece wins 7th position in FIVB Boy’s Youth Volleyball World Championship
The Greeks were up against the Chinese on August 28th in a FIVB Boy’s Youth Volleyball World Championship match for the 7th position in the tournament. The game between the two sides was played in Bahia Blanca, Argentina and it did
not take Greece long to make a clean sweep over the Chinese to end up in the winner’s circle by 3-0.
Not only did Greece win the match by securing three back to back sets, they did so by winning each frame by a significant margin. The first set saw the Greeks leading all the way with the Chinese trailing behind. It was only in the second set that China
was able to put up a challenge for the Greeks but the effort proved to be half-hearted and Greece prevailed in bagging another win. The third set saw the performance of the Chinese slacken further and paved the way for the Greeks to win the match at the following
final set scores: 25-17, 25-21 and 25-16.
The coach of the Greek team, Ioakeim Dimitriadis, expressed himself in the following manner at the press conference that was conducted after the match had reached its close: “Congratulations to China. We have to enjoy this one. We had two faces in all the
tournament, a good in the first round and the second wasn't the best. The seventh podium is the better we could get. This championship helps for the future.”
On the other hand, the Chinese coach, Ruijun Dong, shared his views by giving these statements: “Our players need more experience, next tournament they will be better. The main objective was to enter among the best eight teams and we did it.”
The opening set brought the lead to the Greeks at 8-6. China tried to close in the gap but Greece remained ahead at the second technical time out with the score board showing 16-13. After the two sides came back onto the courts, Greece was able to sail smoothly
to set win at 25-17.
The score remained close in the second set at the first as well as the second technical time outs at 8-6 and 16-14. The Chinese tried hard to overtake their opponents but the Greeks did not relent and marched ahead towards another set win at 25-21.
The Greeks started the third set with force and took an early lead at 8-2 which they were able to stretch till 16-11. The Chinese could not do much except see the Greeks off to a final set win at 25-16.
The lead scorer of the match was the Greek player, Rafail Koumentakis, as he was able to tally a total of 16 points whereas the top scorer on the Chinese side was Zhimin Leng with nine points.
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