Three teams swept their Friday matches in Manila and they all secured their spots at next week’s men’s Volleyball Nations League Finals in Lodz. Japan, Canada and France shut out the Netherlands, Brazil and Iran, respectively, in the Filipino capital and reserved their places among the best eight of the competition to advance to the quarterfinals.
VNL 2024
Japan, Canada and France sweep Friday to book tickets from Manila to Lodz
Published 01:50, 21 Jun 2024
Japan’s Yuji Nishida rejoices
- Watch Volleyball Nations League 2024 live on VBTV
Japan recovered from their five-set defeat at the hands of Canada and got back on the winning track with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-20) victory over the Netherlands in Friday’s late match in Manila, moved up to sixth place in the current VNL standings on a 7-3 win-loss record and 20 points, and can no longer drop down below the cut-off line for the Finals in Poland. Meanwhile, the Dutch are 13th on 3-8 and without a shot at the quarterfinals. Japanese opposite Yuji Nishida led the team with a 16-point match high, including three aces and three kill blocks. Outside hitter and captain Yuki Ishikawa added another 15 points, including two aces and a block and registering an impressive 75% success rate in offence. Outside Maarten Van Garderen was the Netherlands’s best scorer with 10 points to his name.
“So many fans are cheering for us here that every game feels like a home game. I am very happy for that and also for this win,” Nishida told VBTV after the match. “We lost our last game to the strong team of Canada, so it was very important to win today and we came out with a different mindset. And now we are all so happy!”
In the match right before that, Canada mastered a 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 26-24) upset of Brazil and cemented their spot among the top eight of the VNL. The North Americans are now fourth in the table on 7-4 and 21, while the South Americans are seventh on 6-5 and 20, still above the red line, but running some risk of falling below. Outside hitter Eric Loeppky had a strong showing and led the way with a match-high 21 points towards the victory. His tally included three aces and two kill blocks. His cross-court teammate Stephen Maar and opposite Arthur Szwarc also reached the double digits with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Opposite Darlan Souza was Brazil’s most prolific player with 12 points, including two aces.
“This result today means a lot! We talked about it before the game: Brazil is Brazil, so we are going to have to play well to beat them. They are still a really good team. And I think we brought it right from the start,” Loeppky commented after the match. “I am really proud of the guys. I think we just keep getting better as this tournament goes on and it showed today.”
In Friday’s early match in Manila, reigning Olympic champions France also bounced back from their loss to Germany and put a stop to Iran’s mini winning streak with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-20) shutout. They are right between Canada and Japan in the table, in fifth place on 7-3 and 20, and already packing for Poland. Iran are 15th on 2-9 and 6. French opposite Jean Patry was the best scorer of the match with 16 points. He spiked 13 kills at a 54% success rate in attack and added two kill blocks and an ace to his match-high tally. Outside hitter Trevor Celevenot added another 12 points towards France’s success, while outside and captain Milan Ebadipour was Iran’s leading scorer with 10 points.
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