Poland beat Japan to finish in top three

Poland achieved a victorious finale to their Volleyball Nations League 2023 Preliminary Phase campaign to finish among the top three teams in the standings before hosting the Finals in Gdansk from July 19 through 23. In the last Pool 6 game in Pasay City on Sunday, they handed table leaders Japan their second defeat of the tournament, a convincing 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) shutout, to improve to a 10-2 win-loss record and 25 points and move up to second place, just above United States, who are on 9-2 and 28, but with a game in hand. Japan are still on top on 10-2 and 27, but may drop to second, should the Americans beat Bulgaria in their last match on Sunday.

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Wilfredo Leon was the best scorer of the match with 16 points for the winners. He delivered three of Poland’s eight aces and three of their seven kill blocks in the match. Playing without one of their star outside hitters, Ran Takahashi, and their main setter, Masahiro Sekita, on the court, Japan were not competitive enough to their strong opponents. Tatsunori Otsuka was their most productive player with 11 points, all in attack.

Lukasz Kaczmarek was clearly the man of the first set. With the Polish opposite on fire in attack, his team took permanent control of the scoreboard after 15-15. After 19-17, the Europeans went on a six-point rampage on Kaczmarek’s turn to serve, crowned by his ace for the 25-17 winner. Poland put away five aces, three of which authored by Norbert Huber, to establish their domination in the second set, while Japan seemed to be losing steam. Taking permanent control of the scoreboard from 8-8 on, the Europeans cruised on to close the set at 25-19 and double their lead in the match. Riding the momentum, Poland continued to dominate in the third set. Spearheaded by Wilfredo Leon, they cruised to another emphatic close, 25-18, to celebrate the match victory.

“Japan are a great team and, with this crowd, it’s pretty difficult to play against them. We expected it, but we had a lot of fun on the court,” said Polish libero Pawel Zatorski after the game. “We really appreciate this game, because it didn’t change a lot in the ranking, but we treated it as a big lesson to play against one of the best teams in the world at the moment. We also appreciate the crowd, because they created an atmosphere of a most important game. We look forward to going back to Poland. Of course, it’s beautiful here, in the Philippines, but playing in Poland always brings a special power for us and our fans are a big advantage. So we are going to try to use it...”

In a battle for survival between two challenger teams earlier on Sunday, Canada claimed a 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-18) comeback victory over China, despite a 25-point match high from Zhang Jingyin, and secured their spot in VNL 2024. Outside Stephen Maar (six kill blocks) and opposite Ryan Sclater led the North Americans to success with 20 points each. Canada moved up to 12^th place on a 3-9 win-loss record and nine points, while the Asians are bottom 16^th on 2-10 and six. It will be either China or rookies Cuba that will have to put their place in next year’s VNL at stake at the upcoming Volleyball Challenger Cup later this month. The Caribbeans need to win one set from their last match against Iran on Sunday in Anaheim to be safe. If the Cubans lose in straight sets, then the Chinese can celebrate their survival.

Led by their captain Tine Urnaut with 14 points, Slovenia finished their Preliminary Phase on a high note. Their 3-0 (25-20, 32-30, 25-22) shutout of the Netherlands on Sunday (22-point match high from Netherlands’ captain Nimir Abdel-Aziz) left the Dutch out of contention for the Finals and it will be either Serbia (6-6 and 16) or defending champions France (5-6 and 15) to book the last ticket to Gdansk. Right now the southern Europeans are in the coveted eighth place, above ninth-placed Netherlands (5-7 and 17), but if 10^th-placed France beat Germany on Sunday in Anaheim, they will overtake them and snatch a spot at the Finals. The Slovenians are safely in seventh place on 8-4 and 25.

In the remaining three matches of the Preliminary Phase in Anaheim on Sunday, Cuba and Iran will meet at 13:30 local time (20:30 UTC), France will take on Germany at 17:00 (midnight UTC) and hosts USA and Bulgaria will wrap things up at 20:30 (03:30 on the next day).

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

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