Argentina's Pablo Crer scored five blocks against the towering Russians
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016 – Argentina defeated defending champions Russia 3-2 (25-18, 18-25, 25-18, 25-21) in a Pool B match of the men’s volleyball tournament at Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Tuesday morning.
It was the second victory of the South Americans over the powerhouse Russia in a 45-day span with the previous one a 3-0 result at the FIVB World League on June 26. Argentina improved to a 2-0 mark in the preliminary round, while Russia fell to 1-1 with three more pool matches to play.
The smaller Argentineans outblocked Russia 11-7 with Pablo Crer and Sebastian Sole registering 5 and 3 blocks, respectively. The winners also outscored their opponents 6-3 and committed 15 errors to 23 by the losers.
Bruno Lima and Facundo Conte with 18 and 16 points, respectively, were the top Argentinean scorers. Crer finished with 11, while Sole and Ezequiel Palacios had 9 points each.
Egor Kliuka had 16 points in the losing effort, all via attacks, and Kostyantyn Bakun and Artem Volvich had 14 and 11, respectively.
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Consecutive spikes by Poglajen and Lima after an opponent’s error gave Argentina a three-point lead at 10-7 in the first set. Lima and Crer each had five points in the opening set won by the South Americans by a comfortable 25-18.
Bakun scored twice with spikes for a 9-4 Russian lead in the second set that expanded to 12-6 with big hits by Bakun and Volkov. At the end it was 25-18 for Russia.
Trailing 13-12 in the third set, Conte and Sole combined aced and spike. After a Russian error, Conte landed another ace for 16-13. Argentina won the set 25-18 with a spike by Conte to end a long rally.
Blocks by Alexander Volkov against Conte and Crer gave Russia a two-point lead at 8-6. Argentina came back to tie at 18-all with spikes by Conte and Lima but Tetyukhin and Kobzar restored the distance at 20-18. Argentina tied at 20-all with two opponent’s errors and Sole blocked Mykhailov. Argentina won 25-21 when Volkov’s serve sailed long.