Men's U21 World Championship 2023

Hosts Bahrain snatch five-set win over India

Canada, Czechia and Egypt win their first matches of the second stage of the U21 Worlds

Published 07:31, 11 Jul 2023

Bahrain (BRN) vs. India (IND) men - Pool G #5722998

Bahrain’s setter Sadeq Marhoon in action

Hosts Bahrain pleased the home crowd in Manama winning the first match of the second pool stage of the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship on Tuesday. To start off the battles for distribution of the places from ninth to sixteenth with victory, they overcame the resistance of India in five sets. Canada, Czechia and Egypt also won their first games in Pools G and H.

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Pool G

Cory Schoenherr in attack

Canada opened the race for the ninth place at the World Championship with a victory over Tunisia, outplaying the opponents on all counts but the unforced errors, in Tuesday’s first Pool G game in Manama. Their outside hitter Kaden Schmidt led the match scorers with 17 points, including three blocks and two aces. Canadian middle Cory Schoenherr impressed with five kill blocks and two aces towards a 13-point tally. Also with five stuffs within a 13-point tally, his counterpart Mahdi Ben Tahar was Tunisia’s most productive player.

In the latest match of the day, Bahrain came back from a set down twice during their duel with India to emerge with a victory. Each of the first three sets of the game unfolded in a rollercoaster manner, but with their backs against the wall, the home team made sure they dominated the last two to celebrate a successful start in the pool. While making more unforced errors than the Indians, the Bahrainis also outplayed them in spiking, blocking and serving. Their outside hitter Sayed Hashem Ali piled up as many as 31 points towards the victory, including two aces and a block. His teammate and captain Husain Ehsan added another 28 (two aces, two blocks). Aman Kumar was India’s most productive player with 23 points (three aces, one block).

Pool H

Egypt’s Zyad Mohamed on the serve

USA’s abundant unforced errors in the Pool H opening match on Tuesday tilted the outcome Egypt’s way. While the Americans did better than their opponents in attack and blocking, they gifted Egypt 35 points from own mistakes (against 19 on the Africans’ side) to concede a defeat. Egypt’s opposite and captain Zyad Mohamed delivered the match high of 24 points, including two aces and a block. American outside Dillon Klein finished with 22 points, including an ace and two blocks.

Czech Republic (CZE) vs. Mexico (MEX) men - Pool H #5701390

Czechia’s Jiri Benda tries to penetrate a three-man Mexican block

Czechia faced few issues against Mexico, comfortably dominating in all three sets of their victory. While the North Americans outspiked the Europeans, Czechia outblocked Mexico by nine stuffs to one, outserved them by 12 aces to two and made fewer unforced errors, 15 to 23, to stay in control during the game. Three players, all from the Czech team, reached the double digits in scoring: opposite David Kollator with 16 points (four aces, three blocks), outside Jiri Benda with 13 (four aces, one block) and middle Tomas Bukacek with 12 (three blocks).