Bulgaria's Women's Volleyball Team Beats Japan in World Grand Prix Match

Bulgaria's women's national volleyball team beat Japan by 3:0 in a match of the 2013 FIVB World Grand Prix.

On Friday, Bulgaria won by 25:23, 25:23, 31:29 against Japan at the Sendai Gymnasium, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

The highest-scoring players on the Bulgarian team were Elitsa Vasileva with 19 points, Dobriana Rabadzhieva with 13 and Emiliya Nikolova with 11.

"I feel very proud that we won this important match. We continue on our way to the finals. It was essential to start with a victory against the strong team of Japan in the last round. I am pleased with the success and I congratulate the team," said Marcelo Abondanza, head coach of the Bulgarian team.

Japan coach Masayoshi Manabe said that he had tried

"It's our first World Grand Prix with this new national team so I tried to use as many players as possible as a challenge for them, especially the younger players. (Akari) Oumi and (Arisa) Sato only joined us a few weeks ago and were not in the best condition and that was one of the reasons we struggled today. In addition, the combinations between our setters and attackers weren't good. Our interplay is weak, so we have to raise our level for when we get to Sapporo where we will have five games and need to be consistent,"said Japan coach Masayoshi Manabe, as cited by The Japan Times.

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