2017 FIVB WORLD LEAGUE
- June 2 to July 9
- Arena Poprad, Poprad, Slovakia
- Group B2
- Schedule
- Teams
- Event Page
Group 2 Standings After 2 Days of Play:
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Slovakia |
2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6.000 | 178 | 162 | 1.099 |
| 2 |  Slovenia |
2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 3.000 | 195 | 170 | 1.147 |
| 3 |  Turkey |
2 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3.000 | 185 | 160 | 1.156 |
| 4 |  China |
1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1.250 | 207 | 207 | 1.000 |
| 5 |  Czech Republic |
1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1.250 | 190 | 198 | 0.960 |
| 6 |  Netherlands |
1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.333 | 174 | 167 | 1.042 |
| 7 |  Portugal |
1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1.000 | 212 | 217 | 0.977 |
| 8 |  Australia |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0.800 | 210 | 207 | 1.014 |
| 9 |  South Korea |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0.800 | 197 | 197 | 1.000 |
| 10 |  Japan |
0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0.333 | 169 | 183 | 0.923 |
| 11 |  Finland |
0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0.333 | 171 | 188 | 0.910 |
| 12 |  Egypt |
0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.000 | 120 | 152 | 0.789 |
Note: teams in group 2 are split into 3 sites of 4 teams each on each of the 3 weekends of the intercontinental stage of the World League. All teams are scored in a single table, regardless of the sub-pool in which they’re playing.
Pool B2 of the 2nd tier of FIVB’s World League saw the host team Slovakia take a 3-1 win over Australia to move to the top of the group table. Portugal, meanwhile, recovered from an opening round loss to those same Australians to beat Japan 3-2 – giving them 3 points the hard way in two matches
Slovakia def. Australia 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 30-28, 25-22)
This was a hard-fought 3-1 win against Australia in a messy match that saw 32 combined blocks and 61 combined points on errors in just 4 sets of play. Australia actually led in most of the major categories, with a big exception being at the service line – where Slovakia had 7 to just 2 for the visitors.
Peter Ondrovic led Slovakia with a balanced 15 points – 9 on kills, 3 on blocks, and 3 on aces. He was efficient offensively, scoring his 9 kills on just 13 shots.
Samuel Walker had 6 blocks for Australia, part of a 9-point overall performance.
Portugal def. Japan 3-2 (25-21, 19-25, 21-25, 26-24, 19-5)
A back-and-forth affair, that saw 104 total points for Japan and 106 for Portugal, wound up the way of the Europeans in 5 sets. The team was led by monster performances from brothers Marco and Alexandre Ferreira. Marco Ferriera put up 21 points, while Alexandre Ferreira had 18. The two combined for 32 of the team’s 64 kills and 6 of the team’s 14 kills.
The margin for Portugal on the block wound up to be insurmountable for Japan – Portugal had 14 blocks to just 1 for Japan. Asian teams tend to play a style that relies more on back-row defense than their blocking game at the net. Japan had 29 digs while Portugal had 16, but back row defense doesn’t have the same success right at the international level as a powerful block does. That was demonstrated by Japan’s 0-2 record and having been out-blocked 28-8.
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