PARIS. – Poland beat Slovenia in men’s volleyball on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) to finally cross the quarterfinal hurdle having been eliminated in the last eight at every Olympics since 2004, while host France mounted a sensational comeback to beat Germany.
Poland will next play the United States, which later beat Brazil 26-24, 28-30, 25-19, 25-19 in the last quarterfinal on the back of 20 points from Matthew Anderson and 16 from TJ DeFalco.
Gold medalist in 1976 and semifinalist in 1980, Poland had failed to reach the medal rounds for 44 years. It had also fell in the quarterfinals in Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo but is now the No. 1 team in the world.
Led by last year’s EuroVolley MVP Wilfredo Leon’s 20 points (14 kills) and opposite spiker Bartosz Kurek’s 19, Poland’s players got emotional after their 25-20, 24-26, 25-19, 25-20 victory over Slovenia.
“I think the tears described it best. I know how difficult it is after playing great volleyball in the group stage to keep it (going) in the quarterfinals,” middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski said.
“Every Polish national team in volleyball in previous Olympic Games was playing great volleyball in the pool stages and, as the favorite in the quarterfinal, it’s very difficult to keep it.
“Maybe that was the spell (to break), to not play the greatest volleyball in the group stage but being mentally tough and showing the best volleyball from the quarterfinal.”
Poland finished second in Pool B behind Italy, which had a perfect record with three wins to top the group.
Roared on by a loud crowd, Poland’s players sank to the floor when a Slovenian spike went long on match point. They also had Iga Swiatek in attendance and the delighted tennis world No. 1 celebrated the victory with the players on court.
“It is really difficult to keep the mental toughness and energy throughout the whole game, it doesn’t matter if it’s three sets, four sets or five sets,” Kochanowski added.
“We had situations today that could end up in a different way, but it didn’t thanks to the crowd. They did a hell of a job.”
