PARIS — A sold-out, predominantly French crowd had South Paris Arena 1 rocking Friday as Le Bleu rallied against Slovenia in men’s Olympic volleyball.
But Slovenia came away with a five-set victory by scoring the last four points.
That was the third match of the day before the USA played Japan. Earlier, Germany swept Argentina and Brazil did the same to Egypt. Recaps follow and so do Saturday’s schedule and the men’s and women’s standings before the USA-Japan match.
The Americans had already clinched a spot in the quarterfinals and were playing for seeding.
Slovenia, Germany, Brazil win
Slovenia, in its first Olympics, won 25-20, 25-23, 25-27, 22-25, 15-11 to finish 3-0 in Pool A. The fifth set was tied 11-11 when Slovenia took the lead on a service error. After a French hitting error, Tine Urnaut had a kill for Slovenia and the match ended with Alen Pajenk blocking Jean Patry, who had that earlier serving error.
Things got dicey when France thought Slovenia had a lift on serve receive at 10-10 and then France thought a ball hit the floor but was not called.
Ziga Stern had 24 kills, a block and three aces to go with 10 digs. Klemen Cebulj had 12 kills and four aces and Pajenk had eight kills, five blocks and an ace. Jan Kozamernik had four kills, three blocks and three aces as Slovenia held a 12-4 aces advantage. Libero Jani Kovacic had 18 digs.
“Beating France in front of their home crowd is amazing,” Pajenk told the FIVB. “There’s always a lot of drama in big matches and this one was no different.
“We showed great character to come back in the fifth set after they won the last two. I think we lost our focus a little bit at the end of the third set, but we went with all we had to the tie-breaker and I’m glad we won.”
France’s Earvin Ngapeth had 18 kills, two blocks, an ace and seven digs.
Germany advanced as it swept Argentina 25-13, 25-21, 25-21. Gyorgy Grozer had 11 kills, four blocks and an ace, and Moritz Karlitzek had eight kills, two blocks and three aces. Lukas Kampa had a kill and four aces.
“It feels amazing to have qualified,” Germany’s Tobias Krick told the FIVB. “We pushed through what was maybe the toughest pool in the Olympics and we’re super happy with how we played these first three matches.”
Brazil also advanced as it swept Egypt 25-11, 25-13, 25-16. Darlan Souza had 12 kills, two blocks and an ace, Ricardo Lucarelli had 10 kills and three…
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