Press release

Almirante Brown, Argentina, August 27, 2011 - After a few disappointments in the tournament, Russia could prove its strength against Tunisia and celebrated in four sets (25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20) to fight for the 13th place in the final day. The Africans will look for a maximum 15th spot.

Left-handed Konstantin Gavrilov was a continuous threat to Tunisia with 20 points. Colleague opposite Adam Oueslati scored 15 kills for the losing side. Both teams had great numbers in blocking, with Russia ahead 20-13.

At the beginning, Tunisia performed well in attack to keep up the pace with Russia and a great block from Achraf Naceur put the Africans ahead (8-6). Russia reacted and took an advantage of 3 points (12-9) with a superb Sergey Ershov, who made three consecutives blocks and also spiked for a 16-10 lead. Although Tunisia made several mistakes when serving, they stayed on track but couldn't get close. Russian captain Vladimir Manerov sealed the set with a strong attack (25-19).

As in the first set, Tunisia started leading 8-6. The Soviet side gave away many points by errors and the Africans reached the second technical time out six points ahead (16-10). Gavrilov allowed Russia to narrow the difference (19-16), but Tunisia won the set 25-21.

The Tunisian momentum carried on in the third set, but Russia improved and with great blocking (Vladimir Chivel entered the court and scored in that department) went to the first TTO up by one. The Russian libero Andrey Minin performed really well and helped the team to upgrade the counterattack, getting to the second pause 16-11. Russia kept the lead, made it bigger and easily netted the set 25-16.

Russia stepped firmly from the very start of the fourth set, combining good attacks and Tunisian mistakes for an 8-4 score. The gap widened to 12-7 and 16-10, but after that the African closed the gate with the blocking and forced some Russian errors. With the score 21-17, Gavrilov emerged and Chivel blocked the last ball  for the victory (25-20).