MATCH INFO
USA wins a five sets thriller against Russia
Russia and USA struggled for five sets and the Americans ended up celebrating
Almirante Brown, Argentina, August 25, 2011 - Another five-setter closed up the day in the fight for places 9-16. USA stepped ahead of Russia two times, but had to go into a tie-breaker to finally earn the victory (25-20, 20-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-13). Even with the loss, Russia stands in the second place of Pool H, while USA sits on the third spot and nothing is settled yet.
Matthew Tarantino finished with 22 points as the game's top scorer, while Russia had both Vladimir Manerov and Konstantin Gavrilov in good shape, charting 19 and 18 tallies.
USA spiked efficiently and took advantage of Russia's errors to get to the first technical time-out leading 8-7. The Americans maintained the advantage throughout the set (16-15) with a good performance of Tarantino, and were even able to increase it after two errors of Stanislav Masliev (20-17). A great spike of Nikola Antonijevic wrapped up the set 25-20.
Alexey Tertyshinikov pushed Russia to 8-5 in the second set, and Gavrilov came from the bench with some great spikes to carry his side to the second TTO (16-10). USA could not solve the problems created by the Russian serve, clearly improved from the first set, and the Russians nailed the tie in 25-20.
The third started leveled, until Aaron Russell fired two great serves and Antonijevic joined from the attack. With those weapons, the Americans arrived at the second TTO 16-14 and after the break they kept the lead, rushing away in the end towards a 25-18 score.
USA went into the field trying to notch the game, specially with Russell and Tarantino, but Russia shone in attack and Vladimir Chivel soon grew in blocking to boost the Soviet side to a 16-14 lead. Gavrilov, who started the set on the bench, came back to speed things up to 25-22.
Gavrilov and Tarantino engaged themselves in a duel and the American showed more skills to give his team the lead. Russia's Coach Vladimir Kondra sent back Tertyshnikov and Masliev to save the match, and the team survived a few match balls, but USA netted the victory with an amazing spike of Tarantino.
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