PHOTO FIVB
MANILA, Philippines-France beat Japan with a 25-22, 27-25, 25-16 win to stay unbeaten in the second leg of Quezon City of the National Volleyball League (VNL) on Saturday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Jean Patry and Trevor Clevenot delivered as they took down a Japanese side, which had another starting unit in front of 9,491 spectators.
Patry drops 14 points with six digs. Clevenot earned 10 points, while French libero Benjamin Diez defended the floor with 11 digs and six receptions.
France, the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, have won six of its seven matches, unbeaten in three in the Philippines before ending Sunday’s campaign against Germany.
French star Earvin Ngapeth was also sidelined.
“It was a very tough fight today. I think we played great. Japan played great defense so it was difficult to find a solution to our attacks but in the end we won 3-0 and we were able to get three points today”, Clevenot , who also had seven receptions and four digs. .
“We are very good, we are winning. What matters is our confidence,” he added.
After a hard-fought 25-20, 21-25, 24-26, 25-19, 15-13 victory over European champions Italy less than 24 hours ago, Japan failed to catch the ace Yuji Nishida and Yuki Ishikawa, while crowd-loving Ran Takahashi is designated as the libero.
The various starting sets still pushed the French world number 3 to its limit in the first two sets only for the Frenchman to fend off Japan’s bravery to take a 2-0 lead before taking the lead in the third round with score difference 17-9. .
Tatsunori Otsuka led the Japanese with 15 points, while Kenta Takanashi won 13 points and six dugouts.
Japan suffered its first defeat on Philippine soil and its second defeat in seven games.
“I usually play outside in attack but today, I played the opposite. It’s hard. I just applied our training as the opposite,” Tastunori said of his mutant position switch during the match against the Frenchman.
