Loser on fire as Argentina complete perfect week in Anaheim

Argentina completed a perfect week in the Volleyball Nations League 2023 with another victory in Anaheim, the United States, and moved up to third place in the standings ahead of the last day of the Preliminary Phase on Saturday.

The Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists had a tough battle with Iran, but managed to defeat the Asians 3-2 (25-19, 28-30, 27-29, 25-20, 15-11) in their last match before the VNL 2023 Finals.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

The South Americans, who also got wins over Serbia, Germany and hosts USA this week in California, are now in third place as they completed their Preliminary Phase campaign with nine wins in 12 matches and 26 points – they can still be passed by Poland and USA on Sunday. Iran remain in 12^th place with two wins and ten points.

Middle blocker Agustin Loser was in excellent form for Argentina as the 25-year-old Tokyo Olympic medallist registered 21 points with a double-double of 11 kills and incredible ten blocks.

“We never stopped playing,” Loser commented about the Argentinean comeback. “I felt like we wasted some opportunities to win the second and third sets, but we had a strong mentality to still come back. I’m happy with what we did today. We’ve been working very hard since the start of the VNL, we never returned to Argentina. We’re very focused on the VNL and we’re very happy to compete in the Finals.”

Birthday boy Luciano Palonsky, who celebrated his 24^th birthday on Saturday, also had a strong performance, tallying 17 points (16 kills, one block), three more than fellow outside hitter Luciano Vicentin, who registered 14 kills.

Outside hitter Morteza Sharifi was the top Iranian scorer with 16 points (14 kills, one ace, one block) – opposite Faroji Hajipour added another 14, while outside hitter Amirhossein Esfandiar produced 13.

Argentina managed to pull out the victory despite giving away more points in errors than the Iranians – 40 to 37. In contrast, the South Americans were more productive in kills (65 to 53), blocks (14 to 13) and aces (five to three).

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

In the first match of the day in Anaheim, Serbia defeated Bulgaria 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22) and entered the qualification zone for the Finals in eighth place with six victories.

Opposite Drazen Luburic led the Serbian offense with 15 points, followed by outside hitter Pavle Peric, who tallied 11 points. Bulgaria got 12 points from Asparuh Asparuhov and another ten from fellow outside hitter Denis Karyagin.

Three matches will be played in California on Sunday, the last day of the VNL Preliminary Phase – Cuba vs. Iran, at 13:30 local time (20:30 UTC), France vs. Germany at 17:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Monday) and USA vs. Bulgaria at 20:30 local time (03:30 UTC, Monday).

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