Fornal raises Poland to top of pool and to World Championship semis

Brno, Czech Republic, June 29, 2017 – In an incredible battle between two very strong teams, Poland managed to stay unbeaten at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship and qualify for the semifinals as the winner in Pool E. Tomasz Fornal was the main driving force behind his team’s 3-2 (27-29, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 15-11) victory over Iran in the last match of the pool.

Fornal was the best scorer for his team with 20 points. Bartosz Kwolek and captain Jakub Kochanowski followed with 17 and 16, respectively. Iran’s captain Rasoul Aghchehli was once again the best scorer of the match with 25 points.

The first two set points were for Poland and the next two – for Iran. On the third Iranian set point, Rasoul’s block closed the first set at 29-27 upping the team’s blocking score to six and his personal tally to eight. In the second set the Polish defence made the difference, which resulted in a 25-21 win with seven points from Tomasz Fornal. The Iranian spikers stepped up their efforts in the next set and after 25-20 put their team in the lead again. Both teams played some incredibly high quality volleyball in the fourth set. With Fornal and Kwolek leading the way Poland won by 25-20 to prompt a tie-breaker. Poland’s substitute opposite Damian Domagala was the man of the fifth set, scoring five times en route to the 15-11 win.