Brno, Czech Republic, July 1, 2017 –
Poland’s inspirational captain and middle blocker
Jakub Kochanowski once again showed a strong performance on the court to lead the incredible team effort that lifted the squad to the big final of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship. Also inspired by the relentless support from a large group of Polish fans on the stands, the team around coach Sebastian Pawlik mastered a 3-2 (25-21, 25-19, 21-25, 23-25, 15-12) victory over
Brazil to meet
Cuba in Sunday’s gold medal match.
Kochanowski became the best scorer of the match with 21 points, including four kill blocks and two aces.
Pablo Natan Ventura topped the charts for Brazil with 17 points.
From the very beginning of the match Kochanowski proved to be a real leader for Poland and scored seven times in the first set to take his team to a 25-21 win. With the middle blocker at 100% in offence and the Brazilians making too many unforced mistakes in the second set, the Poles cruised on to a 25-19 close to double their lead in the match. Set 3 was a tough-contested battle through 21-20 Poland’s way, when the South Americans managed to score five in a row to stay alive with a 25-21 win.
The fierce fight for every point continued in the fourth set, as neither team managed to break away.
Felipe Moreira Roque was spiking away for Brazil but at set point it was his one-man block that put the ball on the floor for 25-23. The nail-biting drama did not spare the spectators’ emotional health in the tie-breaker either. The Poles were in control, but the Brazilians put on a tough fight to stay close through the end. In the money time
Tomasz Fornal was pumped up to the max and he was the one, whose powerful blast finished it all off at 15-12.