Russian players celebrate during the match against Poland
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 13, 2016 - Russia outplayed Poland in five sets 3-2 (25-18, 16-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-13) despite a Herculean 36-point effort by Polish opposite hitter Bartosz Kurek who registered the second highest total in a single men’s volleyball match in Olympic history on Saturday.
Kurek came up three points short of the Olympic mark of 39 points set by German Gyorgi Grozer against Serbia in a 3-2 victory at London Games in 2012.
The victory improved Russia’s record to 3-1 in Pool B but remained in third place behind Argentina and Poland, who are first and second also with 3-1 win-loss marks but with 9 points.
Maxim Mikhaylov topped Russia with 18 points, followed by Egor Kliuka and Sergey Tetyukhin who finished with 16 and 15, respectively. Artem Volvich and Alexander Volkov chipped in with 12 and 10 points.
Poland’s Mateusz Bieniek with 10 points was the only other player on the defeated side with double figures in the scoring department.
Volvich blocked Klos to break a tie at 8-8 in the first set and Russia took a command of the score they never relinquished.
Poland bounced back in the second and dominated since the very beginning with the only tied score at 1-1 when Klos and Tetyukhin exchanged spikes.
Trailing 8-6 in the third set, the Polish team committed two consecutive errors on serve and spike giving Russia a four-point comfortable margin.
Two consecutive blocks by Kurek and Nowakowski against Tetyukhin and Mikhaulov gave Poland an 18-16 lead in the fourth set.
Trailing by three points at 14-10 in the tie-breaker, Poland sparked a three-point rally to close the gap but Buszek served long to end the match.
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