DAY 5: ARGENTINA BREAKS TURKEY’S UNDEFEATED STREAK WHILE RUSSIA REMAIN AS ONLY UNBEATEN TEAM

Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico, September 16, 2015 - Russia are the only unbeaten team at the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship while Turkey lost the undefeated streak on Wednesday after facing Argentina, that clinched a berth as part of the Top 4.

The squad coached by Alejandro Grossi  defeated Turkey 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-23) with a good control on the ball against one of the most dangerous team in the tournament.

Brian Melgarejo and Nicolas Lazo were the top scorers for Argentina with 12 points apiece and Joaquin Gallego finished with 8. Yasin Aydin was the best for Turkey with 15 units and their captain Vahit Emre Savas finished with 11 as well as Cansin Ogbai Enaboifo.

Russia 3-1 Canada

Russia kept their undefeated streak despite Canada won one of the four sets during the match between both nations at the Baja California High Performance Centre. 

The team coached by Mikhail Nikolaev won 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 25-11) with a 9-6 block advantage. Segei Prainien topped for Russia with 15 points while Dmitry Volkov scored 12. Blake Scheerhorn was the best scorer for Canada after finishing with 14 points. He was followed by Brandon Koppers with 8 and Arthur Szwarc with 7.

 

China  3-0 Italy

China recovered from a loss against Russia suffered a night before and played a totally different match on Wednesday as they beat Italy in straight sets (25-20, 25-17, 25-22) in Pool F. 

Shuhan Rao was the top scorer with 13 points for China, including five blocks while Libin Liu, Runtao Xia and Zhejia Zhang scored 11 points each. Weiqi Lin also contributed with 8 units for the Asian team.

For Italy Andrea Argenta registered 7 points, while Sebastiano Milan and Marco Pierotti scored 6 apiece. China needed 1 hour and 16 minutes to gain their first win in the Second Pools Round.

Brazil 3-1 Slovenia

Despite a very well played second set by Slovenia, that had a very tied match in the beginning, Brazil took the lead to win 3-1  (25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 25-9) in Pool E.

Brazil needed only 18 minutes to outscore Slovenia, with a great work by Caio Oliveira, who tallied 22 points, while Douglas Souza finished with 13 (including 3 aces) and Romulo Silva as well as Rodrigo Leao scored 10 apiece. 

Toncek Stern and Jan Kozamernik were the bets two Slovenian weapons. Every one scored 11 points for the European team while Ziga Donik finished with 9.

France 3-1 Cuba

In Mexicali France took control of pool H after beating Cuba in four sets with by scores 25-23, 25-22, 19-25 and 25-16. Jean Patry and Timothée Carle finished with 15 points each as top scorers for France as the main weapons of the European team, while  captain Luka Basic registered 11 points. Nohoraii Paofai, also had a double digit match with 10 points.

Poland 3-1 Egypt

Poland defeated Egypt in four sets (23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-17) in a match between to coaches from the same country. Jakub Benaruk coach of Poland faced Grzegorz Rys at the State Auditorium. 

Victory was on Benaruk’s side after Egypt surprised by taking the first set. With 17 shots, Aleksander Sliwka eventually got 21 points for Poland, Rafal Szymura had 16 points for Poland, 

Iran 3-1 Japan 

Iran grabbed their second victory at the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship. The team coached by Farhad Nafarzadeh won in four sets by scores of 27-25, 18-25, 25-19 and 25-21 in 1 hour and 59 minutes. 

Amin Esmaeilnezhad finished as top scorer for Iran with 17 points, while Verdian Sahand Allah scored 16 and Salim Cheperli ended with 10.  For Japan, Yuki Higuchi scored 14 and Kenta Takanashi 11, while Issei Otake finished with 10 as well as captain Tsubasa Hisahara. 

USA 3-0 Mexico

The United States won in three sets against hosts Mexico by scores of 25-23, 25-17 and 25-17 at the Mexicali State Auditorium. Fey Kupono scored 13 points for the American team, while Andrew Benesh finished with 8.

Richard Gevis, Jr. and captain  John Hatch closed with 7 points each. Ridl Alexis Garay Nava. Enrique Ugalde and Alan Gabriel Martinez, topped for the locals with 9 units apiece. 

Service was the key for USA, after the team coached by Daniel Friend aced 6 times (2 by Jennings Franciskovic) against only 1 (Ugalde) by Mexico.