Bulgaria Make It to 3rd Round of World Volleyball Championship

(L-R) Vladimir Nikolov, Nikolay Nikolov and Todor Aleksiev provided Bulgaria a stifling block throughout the night against Poland leading to a 12-2 block advantage. Photo by fivb.org

Bulgaria's national team overwhelmed Poland to qualify for the third round of the World Volleyball Championship in Italy.

The Bulgarians beat Poland 3:0 in Ancona Friday night (25:22, 25:18, 25:17 in the individual games) in a Pool N match.

After its win over Poland, Bulgaria will be facing Brazil in a final second phase match of no importance as both Bulgaria and Brazil have already qualified for phase three. Poland is leaving the championship after it lost 0:3 from Brazil on Thursday.

The Bulgarian volleyball team, which entered the tournament with high hopes, did not make a convincing showing in the first round, with two losses (2:3 to France and 1:3 to the Czech Republic) and only one win (3:0 against China) in Pool E.

Bulgaria remained third in the pool, after China did not manage to pull off a win against France Monday and lost 0:3.

As third in its pool, Bulgaria advanced to the second round, but had to face teams that ranked first and second in their respective pools, Brazil and Poland. The best two teams of the pool advance to the next round. This far, Poland had been undefeated, while Brazil registered a 2:3 loss against Cuba Monday.

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