With a game to play in Pool A, United States are also on a perfect record of three wins and 9-0 in sets. On Saturday, they produced a shutout of the other unbeaten team in the pool, hosts Argentina, to take over the top of the table. Sterling Foley and captain Sean Kelly led the way with 18 and 16 points, respectively. Meanwhile, Egypt hammered out a sweep of their game against Costa Rica, securing both theirs and Serbia’s advancement to the eighthfinals and leaving the Central Americans bottom of the table on four losses and without a set won. Egypt’s middle Ibrahim Abdelmaksood raised five kill blocks and fired two aces towards a match-high 18 points. Opposite Shrief Helawy added another 15 points towards the team’s second win of the tournament. In their last pool match on Sunday, Egypt (2-1) will take on Argentina (2-1), hoping to claim the second place in the final standings.
The world’s highest ranked team, Bulgaria, recovered from Thursday’s loss to France with a hard-fought victory over Japan to stamp their ticket to the eighthfinals. Japan’s Tomorou Fujiyama was the best scorer of the match with 28 points, while Kristian Titriyski contributed 26 for the winners. In the other Pool B game on Saturday, Slovenia claimed a win over India on a 24-point match high from Luka Marovt to secure both theirs and Japan’s placement among the eighthfinalists. The Slovenians finished their pool campaign on 2-2 and seven, currently below France (3-0 and nine) and above Bulgaria (2-1 and five) and Japan (1-2 and three). India have yet to win their first set of the tournament.
