MATCH INFO

Niterói, Brazil, August 6, 2011 – After a bad debut at Caio Martins gymnasium on Friday, Japan won their second Pool G match, against Tunisia, 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-18) on Saturday. Now Japan is tied with Tunisia for second place in the pool and has to win Sunday against Egypt for the chance to play for ninth place at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Junior World Championship.

Canada leads Pool G at 2-0. Japan and Tunisia each have records of 1-1, although Japan leads the set ratio.

Japan led Tunisia in spikes (38-32), in blocks (10-4) and in service aces (5-3). The Japanese team got 22 points from Tunisian errors, while their opponents had 18 points. 

Japan’s Takashi Dekita was the best scorer in game with 17 points on 16 attacks and one ace. Taike Tsuruda added 10 points. On the Tunisian side, Racen Siala was the best, scoring 13 on attacks and one block. Mohamed Arbi Ben Abadallah added 12 points all on spikes.

With Japan leading 10-6 in the first set, Tunisia scored twice to pull within two at 10-8, but Tunisia’s next spike attempt went out of bounds and Japan’s Kodai Yoshioka followed with an attack to give Japan a 12-8 lead. With Japan leading 19-12, Tunisia scored three straight points to pull to within four at 19-15. But Japan called timeout and came out with two straight spikes by Ryota Denda and Dekita along with an ace from Denda to take the 22-15 advantage and Tunisia could not come back.

The teams were tied 6-6 in the second set when Japan scored three points on Tunisia’s hitting error, an attack by Denda and an ace from Yoshioka. Tunisia came back to tie the score at 18-18, causing Japan to call timeout. They came back with attacks from Taiki Tsuruda and Dekita to lead 20-18. Tunisia called timeout, but Japan scored again with a double block and Tunisia did not threaten again.

Japan held an 8-5 lead at the first technical timeout (TTO) of the third set. With Japan leading 10-8, Tunisia scored on Mohamed Arbi Ben Ambdallah’s right-side attack and a block from Omar Agrebi to tie the score at 10-10. But Japan immediately came back to score four straight points on two attacks and two blocks and Japan went on to win the match.