With a block from Tillie on Ishikawa at 23-24 in the fourth set, Andrea Giani’s France wins the Volley Nations League for the second time. In the final in Lodz, the reigning Olympic champion national team beat Japan with scores of 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 23-25. Just like in the women’s tournament won by Velasco’s Italy, the Japanese team loses in four sets and fails to bring home the first VNL in history. The match is balanced in all sets, except the second which was won by the Japanese, but it is the great international experience of Patry and his teammates that makes the difference in the decisive moments. Therefore, the 17-point performance of Ishikawa, Perugia’s future spiker, was not enough. For France, 24 points from a sensational Patry who leads his team to triumph when there is less than a month left until the Olympics which will be played in Paris.
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Paris: Italian Volleyball with Brazil, Poland and Egypt
Poland bronze medal
In the bronze final, Poland partially redeems the tie-break lost in the semi-final against France and in front of the home crowd clearly beats Slovenia, the historic bête noire of Leon and his companions, with an indisputable 3-0. A balanced match only in the first set, while in the second and third set the now former captain of Sir Perugia is unplayable: in the end he has 18 points in 26-24, 25-16, 25-17 which allows Grbic’s team to remain on the podium of the VNL after the success of the last edition.
Finals Dream Team: Brizard MVP
- Yuki Ishikawa – best spiker
- Thomas Fornal – best spiker
- Nicolas Le Goff – best center back
- Jakub Kochanowski – best center back
- Tomohiro Yamamoto – best free
- Antoine Brizard – best setter and MVP of the tournament
- Jean Patry – best popposto
