Volleyball Update: Spain helps France to capture the 11th position in FIVB Championship
The blue shirts clinched 11th spot at the FIVB Men’s World Championship with the help of Spanish team. France collided with Spain in the final match for 11th position on last Saturday, 9th October, 2010. The action was witnessed
by 1,800 spectators in the Nelson Mandela Forum in Florence, Italy.
The battle for supremacy was won by France in four set thrilling competition. France outplayed Spaniards by posting 3-1 (25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 25-21) victory and secured the 11th position. France put a great effort and really deserved the honour.
The perfect start in the first set proved a stepping stone for the French team. Romain Vadeleux and Stephane Antiga of France formed a very good combination and delivered lightening spikes to create a lead of 4-1. The French score moved up and they further
stretched the gap by achieving 8-3 at the first technical timeout (FTT). France was all pumped up to crush Spain, while the Spaniards were down on account of too many unforced faults and bad strategy.
On contrary, France played with a perfect rhythm and converted every chance into absolute advantage. They quickly jumped on the ball and secured their position by fantastic digging and ball reception. They maintained a fair difference of points and contributed
more points to reach 13-6. Spain’s Manuel Sevillano hit speedy spikes and tried to narrow the gap but France refused to acknowledge their effort. France’s score soared up to 16-10 at the second technical timeout, which created more trouble for Spain.
France kept on hitting the ball with same energy and momentum. They ended the first set by 25-17 and grabbed success in the opening set.
Spain worked harder in the second set and struggled to return the score to France. They realigned their positions and sought their coach’s instructions to be more effective in attack. The convincing shots of Perez Iban brought stability for the team and
they finally found their feet. Somehow, the second set was full of serving errors from both teams. Spain attained a better position with a score of 8-5 at the first technical timeout.
France returned in the game and chased the score by hitting cruising shots and decent blocking. France took the lead and pushed Spain behind with a score of 18-16. The devastating line shots and tricky bump-passes enabled France to capture second set at
25-23.
France was in very good position after securing the first two sets, while Spain was angry and fired-up. They wanted to take revenge and started the third set with new resolution. They controlled the serving errors and improved their hitting. The hard work
paid them and they were able to successfully build 13-9 lead over France. The team remained consistent in throwing the ball with perfect timing, which shocked the French side. Spain slightly crept to the finish line and ousted France in third set. Spain celebrated
their success and pulled off third set victory by sending 25-16.
The resilient competitor France responded in the fourth set and bounced back in the game. They clawed their way to the 8-6 lead in the early minutes. Spain was full energy after winning the third set and it showed their urge to clinch another set, in order
to force French team to play another set. Nonetheless, the France’s team was back in business and they regained better status against Spain. The French hotshots hit the mark 25-21 and declared fourth set victory.
France successfully pulled off match victory and settled for the 11th position in world rankings.
Guillaume Samica of France led the scoring chart with 16 points, with Stephane Antiga adding another valuable 14. On the other side, Spainish Iban Perez, the leading scorer in the tournament heading into the match, scored a match-high 21 points. Manuel Sevillano
also contributed 14 points in his team's loss.
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