US defeats Bulgaria 3-0 in World League Finals match – Volleyball news
The last match of the final round of the FIVB World League took place on Friday, July 6, 2012 between USA and Bulgaria. The final round of the championship was being staged in Sofia, Bulgaria while the venue of the competition was the Arena Armeec where
an audience of 10,500 had gathered to watch the show. The match between the US and the home team was one sided despite the fact that the US was playing in the home ground of their rivals. The Americans were able to bag three straight sets by a comfortable
margin to defeat Bulgaria.
The US made a clean sweep over their opponents in one hour and 24 minutes at the following final set scores: 25-21, 25-16 and 25-17.
The US coach, Alan Knipe, shared his happiness with the win by making the following comments, “Today we played significantly better in all technical areas than we did yesterday...What I am really proud of is the fact that the players paid a lot of attention
to the details and they brought energy to the court. This is what we will need in our next match.”
On the other hand, the Bulgarian coach Nayden Naydenov, had the following statements to give, “The American team was more concentrated and did their best on the court. Our team tried to do the same, but it seems that it did not work out.”
The player with the highest number of points in the match was Matthew Anderson of the USA who made his presence felt by adding a score of 15 points while the most points tallied on the Bulgarian squad were 12 by Todor Aleksiev.
The first set went to and fro till the coming of the first technical time out which brought the lead to the US at 8-6. The Bulgarians did not let their opponents get away and came up from behind to tie the match. The US kept the advantage and was able to
stretch it with the help of some home team errors. In the end, it was US that were able to seal the deal on the opening set at 25-21.
The first technical time out of the second set too saw the US take the lead at 8-5 and strong play by the Americans led the home team to make errors. US were still leading at the second technical time out at 16-11. After that point, the US did not look back
as they sped on to secure the second set as well at 25-16.
The loss of the first two sets did not do much to motivate the Bulgarians and their performance was affected in the third set which saw the US take the lead at 8-6 and stretch it further till 16-13. Eventually, US were able to bag the third set at 25-17.
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