Argentina’s outside hitter Luciano Palonsky and middle blocker Agustin Loser emerged as the top scorers of the match with 16 points each. Loser raised a solid five kill blocks and registered an impressive 73% success rate in attack, while Palonsky delivered three aces and the match winner. In fact, France outspiked Argentina during the match, but not enough to offset the abundant unforced errors the home team committed. Their best scorers were opposite Stephen Boyer and outside Kevin Tillie with 14 and 13 points, respectively, all in attack.
In a hard-fought first set, the lead went back and forth, but the gap never exceeded two points until 22-19 France’s way. Tillie led the French attackers during the set, but in the end it was Boyer, whose spike closed it off at 25-22. The second set was even more closely contested. This time the gap never exceeded two points one way or another and the set was eventually pushed to overtime. Loser was Argentina’s key player in the set and outside hitter Luciano Vicentin was the one who nailed the 26-24 set winner for the South Americans.
After 7-7 in the third set, Argentina broke away with five points in a row and never looked back. Spearheaded by Pablo Koukartsev, the South Americans managed to keep the home team at bay and hold on to the lead. At Argentina’s second set point, Timothee Carle subbed in to take the serve for France, but sent the ball to the net handing the set to the opponents, 25-21. The home team were struggling to keep up with Argentina during the fourth set. They caught up for one last time at 8-8, but then a strong serving series by Palonsky, including two aces, dealt them a blow they could no longer recover from. Palonsky was also on fire in offence as Argentina cruised to the victory, finalized by the outside hitter with a block-out shot for 25-20.
