USA men open second round of Volleyball Nations League with win over Serbia

The USA men opened the second round of Volleyball Nations League with a rousing 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-21 victory over Serbia on Tuesday.

It left the Americans 4-1 and tied with Brazil and Slovenia a game back of 5-0 of Japan.

This week both portions of the men’s VNL are being played in the same time zone. The USA is in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it plays China on Wednesday. The other site is in Orleans, France.

Also Wednesday in Rotterdam, Iran plays Italy and Germany plays Poland.

In France, Japan plays Cuba, Slovenia plays Canada and Argentina plays France.

USA tops Serbia in four

The Americans opened 3-1 in Ottawa, but were coming off a four-set loss to Brazil last time out on June 11. After losing the first set Tuesday, they stormed back and rode the attack of  four players who had a combined 47 kills.

TJ DeFalco had 14 kills, two aces and a block.

Aaron Russell had 13 kills and two aces.

Matt Anderson, who had four blocks and two aces, and Jeff Jendryk had 10 kills each.

David Smith, who had three kills, led with six blocks.

Serbia (2-3) got 16 kills from Drazen Luburic. Five other players had four or more kills. Serbia has Wednesday off.

Also in Rotterdam

Iran (2-3) got things going with a sweep of Germany (1-4). Iran had a 12-3 blocks advantage in its 25-23, 26-24, 25-16 victory. Amin Esmaeilnezhad had 12 kills, two blocks and two aces.

The Netherlands (3-2) rolled to a 25-19, 25-22, 25-21 victory over China (1-4) behind 17 kills and two blocks from Nimir Abdel-Aziz, who picked up right where he left off in the first round. Maarten Van Gardern had 10 kills, two blocks and two aces.

Matches in Orleans 

Unbeaten Japan (5-0) left Canada (1-4) tied for last with a 25-22, 25-17, 24-26, 25-14 win in which four players combined for 55 kills. Yuki Ishikawa led with 19 and had a block and three aces. Stephen maar had 16 kills and an ace for Canada.

Slovenia (4-1) beat Argentina (3-2) in a match in which all the set scores were the same, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21. Rok Mozic led Slovenia with 16 kills. Klemen Cebulj had 12 kills, two blocks and three aces and Tine Urnaut had 11 kills and an ace. Argentina’s Luciano Palonsky had 16 kills and a block.

Brazil (4-1) swept Bulgaria (1-4) as Alan Souza had 12 kills and two aces and Ricardo Souza had 10 kills and two aces in a 25-22, 25-17, 25-15 win. Brazil had six aces and Bulgaria one by Alex Nikolov,…