VNL 2023: preliminary phase is over! USA to the top, France take the last ticket for Finals

Preliminary phase of 2023 Volleyball Nations League is officially over with last two games played in Anaheim, USA.
The verdicts?
France take the last train to Gdansk, USA to the top and, after last game played yesterday in European night, Cuba survive in the competition overcoming Iran to survive leaving bottom-placed China to defend their spot in the League at this month’s Volleyball Challenger Cup.

In details, reigning Olympic and VNL champions France lost the first set of their game against Germany, but quickly recovered to win the next three to close the game 3-1 (21:25, 25:20, 25:22, 25:21), which was enough to surpass Serbia into the eighth place of the standings, just above the cut-off line for the Finals, with 6-6 win-loss record and 18 points, while a disappointed Germany finished 11th on 3-9 and 10 points.
Outside hitter Trevor Clevenot led France with 17 points, followed by middle blocker Barthelemy Chinenyeze and opposite Stephen Boyer with 13 each, while German opposite Linus Weber was the top scorer of the match on 18 points, including one of the team’s six aces, and middle blocker Anton Brehme scored three aces towards a 14-point record.

In the very last match of the Preliminary Phase, Pool 5 hosts USA defeated Bulgaria in straight sets (29:27, 25:19, 25:21) to take the definitive advantage of Japan’s losses in their last two games to emerge on top of the standings with an excellent 10-2 win-loss record and 31 points, four points more to the Asians.
Bulgaria finished 15th on 2-10 and eight, two points more than bottom-ranked China.
The winners outscored the southern Europeans in all the elements, except for the unforced errors, with outside hitter Garrett Muagututia top scorer of the match with 14 points.
Thomas Jaeschke added another 12, while none of the Bulgarians reached a double digits.

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🏐| 2023 VOLLEYBALL NATIONS LEAGUE

— July 10, 2023 —

Pool 5 – Week 3 – Anaheim 🇺🇸
• 17:00 (Local Time) | France – Germany 3-1 (21:25, 25:20, 25:22, 25:21)
• 20:30 (Local Time) | USA – Bulgaria 3-0 (29:27, 25:19, 25:21)

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🏐| FINAL STANDINGS:
1. USA 31
2. Japan 27
3. Poland 25
4. Italy 26
5. Argentina 26
6. Brazil 25
7. Slovenia 25
8. France 18
9. Serbia 16
10. The Netherlands 17
11. Germany 10
12. Canada 9
13. Cuba 8
14. Iran 11
15. Bulgaria 8
16. China 6

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…NEXT MATCHES:

— July 19, 2023 —

@ Gdansk 🇵🇱

• QUARTERFINAL 1 | 17:00 (Local Time) | USA (1) – France (8)
• QUARTERFINAL 2 | 20:00 (Local Time) | Italy (4) – Argentina (5)

— July 20, 2022 —

• QUARTERFINAL 3 | 17:00 (Local Time) | Japan (2) – Slovenia (7)
• QUARTERFINAL 4 | 20:00 (Local Time) | Poland (3) – Brazil (6)

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