Bahrain beat Puerto Rico 3-2

Manama : Bahrain under coach Yousef Khalifa Alasbool defeated Puerto Rico coached by Juan Albarran 3-2 (22-25, 25-7, 25-10, 24-26, 15-10) in the fourth round of matches in Pool A yesterday evening in the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa.

In the opening set, it was very close with neither side managing more than a two-point lead for the majority of the match until at 23-23 the Central Americans won two unanswered points for a first set lead.

The second set was almost a walkover for the hosts Bahrain as they held leads at 7-1, 17-3 and never looked back.

Third set action was similar after the two sides’ had been tied at 6-6, then the home team surged to a 19-10 lead and wrapped the set up with six unanswered points for a 2-1 match lead.

In the fourth set, Puerto Rico established an early lead at 8-4 and stayed ahead until Bahrain tied it at 24-24, but conceded two unanswered points to set up a fifth set decider.

The fifth set saw Bahrain take a 6-3 lead and then progress to 9-3 and then 11-6 before running out winners and record a second win from three matches.

“We are very pleased to win this game,” Bahrain head coach Yousef Khalifa said. “We have worked hard for this and to see all our hard work bring these good results is great.

Sayed Alabbar (20 points) spearheaded a balanced attack for Bahrain and Mahmood Abdulhusain (15) also contributed including three aces, while Mohammed Jasim (14), Hassan Mohammed (14) and Hassan Haider (13) made important contributions. 

United States remain top of the pool following a closely fought 3-2 (28-30, 22-25, 25-19, 26-24, 15-9) win over Tunisia, with the top scoring Americans being Joel Schneidmiller (18) and Devin Joslyn (14) and for Tunisia they were Yassine Abdelhadi (14) and Mohamed Saleh Fehri (12).

Bahrain have joined Egypt on two wins, while Puerto Rico completed its games with one win and three losses, while Tunisia have lost all its three games so far, with the final round of matches today.

In Pool B action, Japan continued its impressive form with a third win from three as they defeated the defending champions Poland 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 25-20) as the Poles crashed to a third successive defeat. Top scoring for Japan was Kento Miyaura (18) and Tatsunori Otsuka (15) and for Poland Remigiusz (23) and Artur Suigocki (10) top scored.

The win for Japan leaves them ahead of nearest rival Brazil and France with two wins apiece, with the three teams playing its their final round of pool preliminaries scheduled today.

Argentina in Pool C maintained its perfect record with a third win and inflicted a first defeat on South Korea with a come from behind 3-2 (17-25, 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 18-16) victory.

Top scorers for Argentina were Juan Barrera (16) and Luciano Palonsky (15) and for the Koreans, Donghyeok Im (35) and Sungjin Lim (16). 

Other scores: 

Pool A (Sunday): Egypt (Youssef Hamdy Awad, 34, Moyasar Magdi Abouraian, 13) bt Tunisia (Hedi Khazri, 19, Nidal Mhemdi, 18 (3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 30-28). 

Pool B: Brazil (Victor Aleksander Al Meida Cardosa, 16, Guilherme Voss Dos Santos (11) bt Cuba (Jose Carlos Romero Gonzalez, 19, Victor Ramon Andreu Forres, 15) 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 25-19). 

Pool C: Russia (Vitalli Dikarev, 15, Artem Meinikov, 11) bt Chile (Vincente Mardones, 6) 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-15). 

Pool D: Iran (Morteza Sharifi, 14, Porya Yali 14) bt China (Qi Qi, 8) 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-15). Italy bt Mexico 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-17)