POLAND grabbed pole position from Japan, 25-17, 25-19, 25-18, at the close of the 2023 Volleyball Nations League's Pasay City leg in front of a capacity crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday.
Leon Venero (16 points) and Lukasz Kaczmarek (12 points) formed a lethal one-two punch for the Poles that sent Japan reeling to a surprising second straight loss after a run of 10 successive victories.
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The two sides ended up with identical 10-2 (win-loss) cards as they joined USA, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Slovenia, and either Serbia or reigning champion France in the Final Eight beginning on July 19.
"It's a great feeling, even though Japan didn't play with all of their starting six. But it was important for us to keep our focus this game - to be as high as possible in the table coming into the finals in Poland," said Polish spiker Aleksander Sliwka, who scored 11 points.
Still without ace spiker Ran Takahashi, Ryujin Nippon seemed to have lost momentum after dropping a tightly contested battle with Italy on Saturday.
"For us it was a difficult game. First set, our strategy was working well, but after 20 points, it wasn't working in our side anymore. But I'm still so happy to be in the Top Three. We lost two games in a row, but, we played good. We have to rest now and after that we prepare for the finals," Japan captain Yuki Ishikawa said.
Tatsunori Otsuka was Japan's surprise package on offense with a team-high 11 points.
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