Aleksandar Atanasijevic Ties World Championship Match Scoring Record

Friday’s epic 5-set match between France and Serbia to open the 2nd round of the 2018 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championships became a battle of opposites, with Serbia’s Aleksandar Antanasijevic and France’s Stephen Boyer putting up two of the biggest point totals in World Championship history.

Atanasijevic scored 38 for the victorious Serbians, while Boyer scored 34 for the losing French side in the match. Antanasijevic’s total ties Hector Soto of Puerto Rico, who scored 38 in a match against Argentina in 2006, as the most points scored in a men’s World Championship match since rally scoring was installed in 2002. Boyer’s total is the 5th-most in the same time-frame.

At 22 years, 5 months, and 11 days, Boyer is younger than all 3 men (4 occasions) ahead of him were in their 30-point outings. It also makes Boyer the second-youngest ever to do so, behind 18-year old Yuji Nishida who did so earlier this week for Japan.

This marks the 2nd time ever (and this week) that two players have scored 30 points in the same match. The 71 scored here is more than the 63 scored by Facundo Conte of Argentina and Nishida in combination in a preliminary round match earlier this week.

Both players hit over 60% in their efforts, and both contributed well beyond just their offensive points (Boyer had 5 blocks, Atanasijevic had 1 plus an ace). The crucial difference, though, wound up being that Atanasijevic had 6 in the tie-breaking set, including an out-of-system kill to set up the match-winning service ace.

Comparison of the two:

All Time 30+ Point Performances, World Championship History

1. 38 – Aleksandar Atanasijevic, SRB, 2018 (vs. France, 2018) – 5 sets – win
2. 38 – Hector Soto, PUR (vs. Argentina, 2006) – 5 sets – win
3. 37 – Maurice Torres, PUR (vs. Finland, 2018) – 5 sets – loss
4. 36 – Hector Soto, PUR (vs. Tunisia, 2006) – 5 sets – loss
5. 34 – Stephen Boyer, FRA (vs. Serbia, 2018) – 5 sets – loss
6. 33 – Facundo Conte, ARG (vs. Japan, 2018) – 5 sets – loss
7. 32 – Jan Stokr, CZE (vs. Germany, 2006) – 4 sets – win
8. 31 – Yuan Zhi, CHN (vs. Egypt, 2014) – 4 sets – win
9. 31 – Mariusz Walzly, POL (vs. Brazil, 2014) – 5 sets – win
10. 30 – Hector Soto, PUR (vs. Japan, 2006) – 4 sets – loss
11. 30 – Hector Soto, PUR (vs. Canada, 2006) – 4 sets – loss
12. 30 – Ivan Miljkovic, SRB (vs. Cuba, 2010) – 4 sets – loss
13. 30 – Iban Perez, ESP (vs. Russia, 2010) – 5 sets – win
14. 30 – Amir Ghafour, IRI (vs. Serbia, 2014) – 5 sets – win
15. 30 – Yuan Zhi, CHN (vs. Mexico, 2014) – 4 sets – win
16. 30 – Ivan Mijkovic, SRB (vs. Korea, 2014) – 4 sets – win
17. 30 – Yuji Nishida, Japan (vs. Argentina, 2018) – 5 sets – win