MATCH INFO

Niterói, Brazil, August 7, 2011 – Germany will advance to Tuesday's semifinals for ninth place after defeating Bulgaria, 3-0 (25-23, 29-27, 26-24) in the last Pool H match at Caio Martins gymnasium, and will play Canada, the winner of Pool G.

Germany finished second in Pool H with a 2-1 record. Bulgaria (1-2) will play in Monday's quarterfinals against either Japan or Egypt.

Germany led Bulgaria in attacks (14-9), blocks (15-0) and service aces (2-1). Bulgaria scored 28 points of German errors while Germany only got 16 points from Bulgaria miscues.

Björn Höhne and Tom Strohbach each finished with 15 points for Germany. Each had 14 attacks and one block. Oskar Klingner had five blocks for Germany.

Ventsislav Trifonov led Bulgaria with 11 points on seven spikes and fou blocks. Ilyan Bozhkov added 10 points on nine attacks and one block. 

Germany took an 8-6 lead at the first technical timeout (TTO) and was still leading at 14-12 when Bulgaria scored with an attack by Jani Jeliazkov and Germany’s spiking error to tie the score. Bulgaria used a block to take a 16-15 lead at the second TTO and expanded it to 17-115 before Germany came back to tie the score at 17-17. At 18-18, Germany’s Höhne got an attack off the block and Florian Volker added a block to give Germany the 20-18 lead. Bulgaria managed to pull to within one at 21-20, but Bulgaria’s next serve went out of bounds and Germany’s Georg Klein added a block to give Germany a lead it did not give up.

After many changes in lead throughout the set, the score was tied at 22-22 when Germany’s Tom Strohbach connected with a left-side attack, followed by a block by Klinger and Zimmermann that gave Germany set point. Bulgaria’s Trifonov scored twice to tie the score. Germany reached its second set point at 25-24, while Bulgaria took its first set point at 26-25. Germany held its third set point at 27-26 before Bulgaria tied the score. Finally, Georg Klein got two straight blocks to give Germany the set win.

Bulgaria led for most of the third set, but Germany kept them within range. With the score tied 23-23, Germany’s Hohne hit through Bulgaria’s block to reach set point. Bulgaria’s Ilyan Bozkhov tied it with an attack off Germany’s block attempt. Germany came back with a spike and Volker won the set and the match for Germany with an ace.