International men’s report: Club Worlds; big weeks for Szerscen, Russell

This is Blair Lambert’s VolleyballMag.com weekly men’s professional volleyball report, featuring Americans around the world. Got a note about a player or a comment for Blair? Email him at blairlambert2@gmail.com

The FIVB Club World Championships finished in Bengaluru, India, as Sir Susa Perugia won for the second consecutive year and did it without injured Wilfredo Leon.

Micah Ma’a and Halkbank Ankara qualified for the tournament by reaching the semifinals of last season’s CEV Champions League. The finalists from the Champions League were both from Poland and decided to decline their bids, since their domestic and continental schedules are so busy. That opened the door for Halkbank and Perugia, which both reached the semifinals of the Champions League last season.

Halkbank went 1-3 and finished fourth of six teams. After opening the week getting swept by Suntory Sunbirds, the champions from Asia, Ma’a set Halkbank to a sweep of Sada Cruzeiro. That eliminated Sada, the South American champion. Halkbank was swept by Perugia in the semifinals and lost in five again to Suntory in the bronze-medal match.

Poland

Nicolas Szerscen had 23 kills and a block but Indykpol AZS Olsztyn lost in five to Barkom Kazany Lviv. Josh Tuaniga set Olsztyn to a .389 hitting percentage and added an ace.

Erik Shoji passed 46 percent positively and 29 percent perfect in ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle’s five-set defeat to Bogdanka LUK Lublin.

Olsztyn finished the week with a sweep of Cuprum Lubin .Tuaniga had an ace and a kill while setting the team to a .373 attack efficiency. Szerszen was MVP with 15 points. Jake Hanes played in two sets for Cuprum Lubin and had five kills and a block.

ZAKSA, swept by Trefl Gdansk, went winless for the week. Shoji turned in a 67 and 27 percent passing performance.

Russia

Zenit Kazan won two five-setter. Micah Christenson was given a rest against Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, but started the fifth set to secure the 15-11 victory and had two aces and two blocks.

Christenson then set Kazan to a .364 attack efficiency in a win over Kuzbass Kemerovo.

Italy

Gioiella Prisma Taranto lost in four to Gas Sales Piacenza. Kyle Russell had five aces with four errors and added nine kills and a block. Jeff Jendryk had seven kills in as many swings and a block.

Alex Nikolov matched Ivan Zaytsev’s 16 points to lead Lube Civitanova to a four-set win over…