Athens Olympic bronze medalists Russia defeated the US in the men's Volleyball World Cup yesterday to win a place at next year's Olympics.
The Russians scored a 25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-8 victory to secure one of the top three places in the 12-team round robin competition and join world champions Brazil and world bronze medalists Bulgaria in Beijing.
The top three finishers at the World Cup qualify for the Olympics next year.
PHOTO: AFP
Alexander Volkov was the hero of the match, hitting a couple of service winners at 17-17 in the fourth set to win consecutive points for 24-17, which turned the momentum to Russia.
"Our team rely on our serve very much and whenever it doesn't work we lose a game, like the matches against Brazil and Bulgaria. Today, it worked pretty well, although it was a bit risky," Russia coach Vladimir Alekno said. "I cannot explain logically what happened in today's match, maybe we were a bit lucky, but in any sports events, you cannot say until the very end of a match. We learned a lot from today's match."
Meanwhile, the best scorer Semen Poltavskiy said: "I don't have many things to talk about this match. I can only say that the most important thing was we won the ticket to the Olympics."
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