In a battle between two of the leading teams in the competition, Dmitriy Volkov gave a reminder of his great talent as he scored 19 points in ROC’s 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-20) win over Brazil at Ariake Arena on Wednesday night.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Volleyball
Volkov powers ROC to unbeaten run in Tokyo
Team ROC the only undefeated squad in Olympic men’s volleyball
Published 03:29, 28 Jul 2021
But while Volkov’s performance was remarkable, the performances of Maxim Mikhaylov, Ivan Iakovlev and the rest of ROC’s starting unit gave this victory a special meaning as they are the only unbeaten squad left in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 men’s volleyball competition.
Volkov and Iakovlev were explosive for ROC and helped their side to a winning start as they had seven attacks and six blocks in the opening set. Then they extended their dominance in the next two sets, with Mikhaylov and Volkov seizing 14 and 12 markers.
All Brazilian scorers were held to single digits. Lucas Saatkamp led Brazil with a team-high nine points.
“We are satisfied with this win over the top men’s volleyball team because this will give us confidence in the next matches. The last time we defeated them in the Olympic Games was at London 2012, so this is a very important win for us.” Volkov said.
In other matches, the tie between the United States and Tunisia ended in favour of the North American side, with a 3-1 (25-14, 23-25, 25-14, 25-23) scoreline.
After splitting wins in the first two frames, USA’s offence picked up speed with TJ Defalco leading the attack and finishing the match with 24 points. Max Holt took care of the defence, scoring three of USA’s nine blocks.
Poland claimed their second win in a row through a four-set (25-16, 25-15, 18-25, 25-15) victory over Venezuela.
Kamil Semeniuk collected 24 points, including six aces that comprised more than half of Poland’s output from the service line. His teammates Mateusz Bienek and Jakub Kochanowski contributed 14 and 11 points, respectively, to Poland’s winning cause.
Venezuela had a bright moment in the next set, with Ronald Fayola and Wilner Rivas scoring five markers apiece to steal the third set from the world champions, but Semeniuk’s overwhelming 10-point performance in the fourth helped seal the match win for the European side.
Italy got back on to the winning path with a 3-1 (25-20, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21) win over Japan. The Japanese, who were aiming to continue their winning run, were denied by the strong performances of Italian hitters Osmany Juantorena, Ivan Zaytsev and Alessandro Michieletto.
In the first set, Juantorena and Zaytsev led the Italian offence with seven and six markers, then Zaytsev and middle blocker Simone Anzani took over in the second set with six-point performances.
Yuki Ishikawa and Yuji Nishida kept Japan within striking distance by combining for 14 attacks. Ishikawa’s spike gave set point to Japan and an Italian service error extended the match to a fourth set.
Juantorena had a five-point scoring outburst in the fourth set to guide Italy to victory. Juantorena and Zaytsev led Italy with 22 and 18 points, while their counterparts Ishikawa and Nishida replicated their point outputs.
“We had to focus on our service because Japan had very good reception. And we had patience in this match, the kind of patience that we didn’t have in our last match, so now we were rewarded with a win,” Juantorena said.
Meanwhile, Canada and Argentina earned their first wins at the expense of Iran and France, respectively.
Iran suffered their first loss at the hands of North American side Canada. The Canadians got their first win with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-22) win over the Asian powerhouse squad.
Canada got solid hitting performances from captain John Gordon Perrin who top scored with 16 points, and Nicholas Hoag who added 15 to claim their first victory after dropping their first two matches against the Italians and the Japanese.
The Iranians again relied on their scoring trio, but only Amir Ghafour and Milad Ebadipour recorded double figures of 13 and 12. Meisam Salehi was limited to just nine markers by the Canadian blockers.
In the afternoon, Argentina avoided another letdown, holding on with a two-point edge in the tiebreaker to record a 3-2 (23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-25, 15-13) win over France, following their tough five-set loss to South American rivals Brazil last Monday.
“We were placed again in a situation similar to our previous match against Brazil, and I think we handled pressure in this match better,” Argentina captain Facundo Conte said.
“I think the key moment in the fifth set was when we managed to get a breakpoint at 10-9 because that put us at ease to execute our game.”
Four players had at least double-digit outputs for Argentina, led by Bruno Lima’s team-high 18 points, helping snap the losing streak in their third match. Conte, Cristian Poglajen each had 16 points and Agustin Loser made 13 points to support Lima in denying France back-to-back triumphs.
The French side were led by Trevor Clevenot and Jean Patry who logged 24 and 22 points, respectively.
On Friday, Canada and Venezuela will play the first match at 09.00, then Brazil and USA will meet next at 11.05. The home team, Japan, will go up against world champions Poland in the afternoon at 14.20, followed by the matchup between Argentina and Tunisia at 16.25. Italy and Iran will face each other at 19.40 before European sides ROC and France clash at 21.45.