Piskarev lifts Russia to semis

Brno, Czech Republic, June 28, 2017 – Ivan Piskarev was the man of the match, in which Russia mastered a 3-1 (28-26, 25-27, 25-21, 25-13) victory over Canada to claim their semifinal spot at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship in Brno. This result also booked the team of Brazil into the medal matches.

Piskarev topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 20 points. Anton Semyshev followed with 18. Matthew Passalent was Canada’s top scorer with 16 points.

In a very tight first set Canada spiked better, but also made more unforced errors, which eventually cost them the set – 28-26 to Russia. Set two was also a fierce battle. This time the Russians committed more mistakes and the North Americans took advantage of it to claim a 27-25 win. Russian substitute Kirill Klets hammered out eight points, including two aces, in the third set on the way to a 25-21 win, which brought his team closer to the victory. It came one set later, as the European squad completely outplayed the opponents and cruised to a 25-13 close, with Piskarev nailing the 24th point and setting the ball to Semyshev for the 25th.