Hosts Japan delivered their second victory of the first Volleyball Nations League 2023 competition week in Nagoya. Opposite Yuju Nishida made an excellent match to lead his teammates to a 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-20) win over Serbia on Friday, which lifted the Asian team to the third place in the current standings on a 2-0 win-loss record and six points, while their European opponents dropped to ninth on 1-2 and three.
VNL 2023
High-flying Nishida spearheads Japan to second VNL win
Poland take their third victory, champs France – their first
Published 01:07, 09 Jun 2023
Nishida in the clouds
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Spiking at a 69% success rate, Nishida fired 22 points in attack and added a kill block and an ace towards the match high of 24 points. With a brilliant performance from setter Masahiro Sekita, outside hitters Ran Takahashi and captain Yuki Ishikawa also reached the double digits in scoring with 15 and 17 points, respectively. Outside Pavle Peric was Serbia’s most prolific player with 22 points, including four blocks and an ace. Opposite and captain Drazen Luburic added 17 points and outside Miran Kujundzic finished with 10.
In the first set, the lead swung from three points Japan’s way at 11-8 to three points Serbia’s way at 25-22, with Drazen Luburic spearheading the Europeans’ offence. The Serbian blocking is what actually made the difference in that first set, with Pavle Peric putting away two stuffs and middle Aleksandar Nedeljkovic delivering the set winner with a monster block. The Serbians stormed the second set on a 4-0 run, but the Japanese caught up at 7-7 and shortly took control for the rest of the set, with Yuji Nishida on fire in attack, hammering away nine kills, including the set winner at 25-21.
The home side maintained a slight lead for most of the third set. The Europeans levelled the score several times, but never quite managed to step in front. Nishida kept the pressure with his spikes bringing set point with one of them, and Yuki Ishikawa nailed the last ball with a powerful pipe shot for 25-23. The fourth set was competitive through 14-14, after which Japan broke away and never looked back to take the set by 25-20 and the match by 3-1.
Masahiro Sekita in action
“To win as a team is the most important thing here. Serbia have very tall blockers, so our hitters had to be very efficient in attack. We are happy to have pleased our fans with two wins already here in Nagoya,” said Masahiro Sekita after the game.
On Saturday at 19:10 local time (10:10 UTC), Japan will take on Bulgaria, while Serbia’s last match in Nagoya is against Poland on Sunday at 15:40 (06:40).
Poland’s Kamil Semeniuk spikes against a three-man Bulgarian block
Poland managed to stay unbeaten by surviving another five-setter to claim their third victory, a 3-2 (25-27, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 15-11) win over Bulgaria in the previous match in Nagoya, and top the current standings on a 3-0 win-loss record and seven points. Bulgaria are fifth on 1-2 and five. While the southern Europeans outspiked the central Europeans (60 to 57), the Poles impressed mostly from the serving line, with nine aces against three. Outside Artur Szalpuk was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, including two aces and a block, for the winners. His Bulgarian counterpart Martin Atanasov led the scorers on the other side of the net with 15 points.
Earlier on Friday, defending champions France managed their first win of the new season, a 3-1 (25-20, 23-25 25-16, 25-17) victory over China, to improve to 1-1 and three points and overtake the opponents, who dropped to 1-2 and two. With nine aces against one and 57 successful spikes against 42, the Olympic champions outpaced the opponents on the way to victory. Outside Timothee Carle contributed a match-high 18 points, including two aces and two blocks. Kevin Tillie and Theo Faure added 17 apiece, with the latter excelling with three aces and two kill blocks. Opposite and captain Jiang Chuan led China with 15 points.
France’s Timothee Carle on the block
Friday’s action moves to Ottawa where the Pool 1 programme offers the games between the Netherlands and Germany at 11:00 local time (15:00 UTC), between Italy and Cuba at 16:30 (20:30), and between hosts Canada and Argentina at 20:00 (00:00).
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