France hammered out a 3-0 (26-24, 25-16, 25-20) sweep of Japan in Thursday’s first quarterfinal at the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2022 Finals in Bologna and will face hosts Italy in one of Saturday’s semifinals. Right after that, Poland persevered through a tough five-setter against Asian champions Iran to celebrate with a 3-2 (25-21, 24-26, 25-18, 16-25, 15-7) victory and head to the semis for a meeting with USA.
While French star libero Jenia Grebennikov played his first match in this year’s VNL and contributed to the team’s success against Japan with great reception and some excellent digs, opposite Jean Patry led the match scorers with a total of 19 points, followed by outside hitter Yacine Louati with 10.
The first set went evenly matched as the gap never exceeded a point until a swing and a block by Patry put France two points ahead at 14-12. That advantage was quickly wiped out by Japan, but shortly after, a successful spike on two by setter Antoine Brizard in the middle of a three-point French series helped the team take an 18-15 led. A Taishi Onodera ace, sandwiched between two successful swings by his teammates, was also followed by a kill block from middle Akihiro Yamauchi and a French mistake as Japan suddenly found themselves with a 23-21 lead. However, their own errors did not allow them to hold on to it. Patry’s kill delivered the first set point at 24-23. Another one, his eighth point in the set, converted the second set point to a 26-24 win.
With four in a row, including a Brizard over-on-two as well as a spike and a block by Louati, France broke away with a 7-4 lead in the second set. Another two consecutive points by Louati, a swing and an ace, followed by a kill from Patry extended it to 11-6 and France never looked back. Japan committed far too many errors and even the two back-to-back aces by opposite Yuji Nishida only narrowed down their lag to 11-9. France cruised on make the gap wider and wider. Finally, two aces in a row by Brizard crowned a five-point French series and brought in set point at 24-15, which was soon converted to a 25-16 close with a successful pipe shot by outside Trevor Clevenot.
France took two break points in a row, on a hit and a monster block by Clevenot, to edge forward with an 8-5 advantage in the third set, a blow Japan could never recover from. All they were able to do was get back to within one momentarily, but France kept the pressure on to stay in control and...
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