Lille, France, July 10, 2018 - A total of 21,702 points were scored in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League. And Brazil opposite Wallace De Souza saw to it that 278 of them were scored by himself, setting the initial socring record at this inaugural edition of the competition.
It all started in Ningbo, China on May 25, when Argentina and USA clashed in the historic opening match of the inaugural 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League. One hundred and thirty matches, 481 sets and 21,702 rallies later, Russia emerged triumphant after 227 hours, 51 minutes of exhilirating volleyball across all continents.
Going into the VNL finals in Lille, 31-year-old Wallace was in second place in the Best Scorers list, trailing China's Jiang Chuan by 57. And although Wallace was not the best scorer of the finals (that distinction went to France's brilliant Stephen Boyer with 75 points in four matches), he did manage to pick up another 61 - enough to just overtake Jiang and finish top of the overall table for the whole of the VNL.
France's Stephen Boyer is the only player to have scored 30 points or more at the FIVB Volleyball Nations League finals.
A total of five players scored 30 points or more in a single game at this maiden VNL. Twenty-four-year old Jiang leads the list of the 'Over 30s Club' with the 37 points he scored in China's five-set win over France in pool play at Lodz.
Twenty-two-year-old Boyer is the only player to have made the list in a final round game, scoring 31 in France's five-set win over USA in the semifinals in Lille. And Australia's Paul Carroll is the only player to have broken the 30-point in four sets, when the 'Volleyroos' defeated China at Seoul.
But the most efficient attacker of the whole of the VNL is Russia's Dmitriy Muserskiy, who got 173 kills in 262 swings for an incredible rate of 66%. Jiang, at 55% (242/440) was way behid, in second place overall.
In blocking, it was Bulgaria's Svetoslav Gotsev who stood out in this year's VNL. The 28-year-old middle blocker stuffed his opponents 34 times for the most blocks in absolute numbers throughout the whole VNL. Lucas Saatkamp topped the blockers table in the finals in Lille with 10 stuffs and an average per set of .71, but overall in absolute numbers the 32-year-old Brazilian is quite far down in the list.
Egor Kliuka served six aces, or .46 per set, for Russia in the Final Six of the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League finals.
And in serving, France's Earvin Ngapeth finished top of the best servers list in the whole of the VNL. The 27-year-old outside hitter had served 17 aces in pool play and added another five in the Final Six. At 22, that's just one ace more than USA's Matt Anderson, who went into the finals with 17 and served another four in Lille.
In relative numbers, Egor Kliuka averaged .46 aces per set for Russia and Thibault Rossard .44 for France in the Final Six.
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