What an opening day of the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2026! Three of the nine matches were pushed to tie-breakers, while both finalists of the previous major world-level competition, the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship, suffered setbacks in their season openers. In one of the five-set thrillers, reigning Olympic champions France narrowly defeated reigning world champions Italy. Meanwhile, VNL rookies Belgium delivered a dream debut by beating World Championship silver medalists Bulgaria in four sets.
VNL 2026
Olympic champs France beat world champs Italy in five-set thriller on VNL day one
Belgium produce dream VNL debut, upset World Championship silver medalists Bulgaria
Published 04:28, 11 Jun 2026
France’s Stephen Boyer in attack against Italy
- Watch the Volleyball Nations League 2026 on VBTV
Four of the five sets in the battle between European neighbors France and Italy in Ottawa were decided by the narrowest of margins, and two of them, including the tie-breaker, were pushed to overtime. Italy’s opposite Kamil Rychlicki fired as many as 30 points to emerge as the best scorer of the first VNL day, but in the end, it was France who celebrated a 3-2 (19-25, 29-27, 23-25, 25-23, 16-14) victory after coming back from a set down twice during the match.
In the money time of the fifth set, Italy denied two match points for France, but on the third one, France’s 21-year-old outside hitter Mathis Henno nailed the winning point. He was the team’s best scorer of the game with a total of 18 points. His cross-court teammate Trevor Clevenot and opposite Stephen Boyer added 16 and 14 points, respectively, while 18-year-old middle blocker Daniel Iyegbekedo raised a massive eight kill blocks to finish with a 12-point tally. Rychlicki led Italy with 27 spike kills, two serving aces and a kill block. Outsides Mattia Bottolo and 22-year-old Luca Porro scored 17 and 15 points, respectively, while 19-year-old middle Pardo Mati put up four stuffs and three aces and spiked at an 80% success rate to reach the double digits with 11 points.
“I am very happy about the spirit. They put a lot of pressure in serving, as we expected, and we struggled, but we managed to stay in the game and stay aggressive, so that was great,” French setter and captain Antoine Brizard told VBTV after the match. “It’s always a special game with Italy. We love each other, we hate each other – we are so close, that, of course, we are really connected and we know each other perfectly, so these are always tight games.”
France vs. Italy - Highlights | Men's VNL 2026
Earlier in the day, in Brasilia, World Championship runners-up Bulgaria suffered a shocker at the hands of VNL rookies Belgium. The western Europeans came back from a set down to win the next three and celebrate a historic first VNL victory, 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 26-24, 25-23) over the southern Europeans. As many as 9.46 FIVB World Ranking points changed hands with this result, so Belgium climbed a spot to number 14, while Bulgaria dropped a spot to number 10.
After a dominant win in the first set, Bulgaria started committing far too many errors, especially from the serving line. Belgium, on their end, put pressure on the opponents with their serving, with long runs from the end line by 22-year-old outside Pierre Perin and experienced setter and captain Stijn D'Hulst, and won each of the next three sets by the narrowest of margins. Perin led the team with 16 points, including two aces. Opposite Basil Dermaux contributed 14, while Belgium’s 22-year-old scoring machine Ferre Reggers played as an outside in this match and brought in 11 points. Another 22-year-old outside, Bulgarian star Aleksandar Nikolov, who was the best scorer of the World Championship, was also the best scorer of this match, with 25 points. Opposite Asparuh Asparuhov added another 15 for Bulgaria.
“I knew from the beginning that we could do something. The entire team was really excited to start our first VNL in history, and I think we just went for it,” Perin commented after the game. “In the first set, we had some difficult moments, we took some time to get into the game, but we kept believing. This victory is really important for us. It’s the best debut we could have hoped for. It will not be easy against Brazil, but again, the game starts from 0-0, so we’ll go for it for sure. And we are really excited to see the atmosphere in Brasilia.”
The new men’s VNL season got underway earlier on Wednesday in Linyi. In the opening game, defending champions Poland coped with Cuba in straight sets, 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-21), with opposite Bartosz Gomulka emerging as the first match top scorer of VNL 2026, with 15 points to his name, including three aces and a kill block. 22-year-old middle blocker Jakub Majchrzak contributed six kill blocks towards a 12-point tally, while opposite Alejandro Gonzalez led Cuba with 14 points, including four blocks. With this emphatic win, Poland emerged as leaders in the current VNL standings after the first competition day.
In the second match of the day in Linyi, last two years’ semifinalists Slovenia and hosts China engaged in a hard-fought five-set battle with the European side celebrating a 3-2 (25-17, 20-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-10) win. Slovenian outside hitter Rok Mozic led the way with a match-high 25 points, including the match winner. He put away five kill blocks and one ace, and registered a 61% success rate in attack. Sub-in opposite Wen Zihua was China’s most prolific scorer with 23 points.
The first competition day in China ended with Japan taking out Ukraine in straight sets, 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-22). Star opposite Yuji Nishida and star outside hitter Ran Takahashi were the Asian team’s main point contributors, with 13 and 12 putaways, respectively. Ukraine’s outside Dmytro Yanchuk topped the match chart with 18 points, including four aces and a block.
The first competition day in Ottawa started with USA beating Turkiye by 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 25-20, 25-23). Spiking with 69% success, American opposite Jake Hanes was the top scorer of the match with 21 points. His counterpart Adis Lagumdzija led Turkiye with 16.
Next in the Canadian capital, Germany upset the home team in a five-set duel, taking a narrow 3-2 (24-26, 25-19, 20-25, 25-21, 15-13) victory and ascending in the World Ranking by two positions, to number nine, surpassing both Canada and Bulgaria on the way up. Opposite Filip John and outside Tobias Brand shared the top scorer honors with 19 points each, while Canadian outside and captain Eric Loeppky led his team’s scoring with 15 points.
In the Brazilian capital, Serbia made a successful start to their campaign, with a hard-fought 3-1 (25-23, 25-20, 25-27, 26-24) win over Argentina and also climbed a spot up the World Ranking, to number 12. Opposite Veljko Masulovic led the way with a match-high 19 points. Outside Luciano Vicentin was Argentina’s leading scorer with 17.
In front of 3,470 fans in the stands for the last match of the day in Brasilia, the home team achieved a 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-15, 25-23) victory over Iran. Brazil were spearheaded by opposite Darlan Souza, who hammered 18 points, all in swings. Outside Adriano Cavalcante chipped in with four aces from the serving line. Iranian opposite Ali Hajipour (Haji) delivered a team-high 17 points.
VNL action continues on Thursday. In Linyi, hosts China will entertain Ukraine, while Slovenia will challenge Poland in a big all-European clash. Bulgaria and Iran will look to recover from their opening day loss as they face one another in Brasilia, before Belgium look for another feat, this time against mighty Brazil. The day’s program in Ottawa offers a game between Germany and Italy, followed by an exciting encounter between hosts Canada and Olympic champs France.
