Australian Men Defeat Argentina

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Submitted by David Martin on July 28, 2004 - 1:23pm.

The Volleyball Team Australia Men (VTAM) defeated world number 8 Argentina in the last of their 4 match series leading up to the Olympic Games next month.

Playing in Argentina, the VTA Men lost a tight opening match of the tour on Friday, July 16, going down 1:3 in four close sets (22 - 25, 23 - 25, 26 - 24, 25 - 27) .

It was much the same story in their second match on Sunday, this time though the Australians weren't able to win one of the hard-fought sets, going down 0:3 (23 - 25, 23 - 25, 23 - 25).

The teams headed to Lanus, near Buenos Aires, on Tuesday, July 20, for the third match. Despite comfortably winning the second set, the Australians again went down 1:3 (23 - 25, 25 - 20, 16 - 25, 21 - 25).

The final match of the series was in Buenos Aires on Thursday night. This was to be Australia's night.
From http://www.isport.com.au/volleyball/avf/htstart.cl?&PT=ni&D=*&nd=25-07-04&newsID=avf&newsClub=AA&seq=1 :


The VTA Men defeated Argentina 3:2 in the fourth and final match of the series. It was the first time ever that Australia had beaten Argentina at home, having only ever beaten them once before, in Canberra in 1998. As with all the matches in this series, the sets were very close, with each set being decided by no more than 2 points (28 - 26, 23 – 25, 24 – 26, 36 – 34, 15 - 13).
Australia was called upon to display some great fighting qualities as they had to save 7 match points in the 4th set, including at least 3 times where Argentina attacked for the point. A much better passing performance, led by veteran David Beard (70% perfect), helped the Australian attack. While Australia continued its blocking dominance of the locals, stuff blocking them 16 times.
The win gives the team a great lead into the second section of their pre-Olympic tour. They are now in Poland, where they will compete in a tournament with Poland, Netherlands, Russia and Tunisia.


Argentina meanwhile head to Holland to continue their Olympic preparation. And despite their loss to Australia in the last match, they came out of the series feeling positive.

"We played well. In spite of the defeat in the last match, the general performance was good. We were tired towards the end, but with good rate of game", said Argentina's top receiver, Pablo Meana.

You can view photos from the series here.