Nimir e Kovacic dominano le classifiche individuali della Fase Preliminare della VNL

A total of four players finished on top of the seven different individual charts at the end of the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2023 Preliminary Phase. Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz headed as many as three of the rankings, including the one for the best scorers. Slovenian libero Jani Kovacic finished first in two of the charts, while Argentinean middle blocker Agustin Loser and Brazilian setter Bruno Rezende also excelled as statistical leaders.

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For a third year running, Nimir topped the VNL rankings for best scorer, best attacker and best server. He will, however, be missed at the Finals in Gdansk as this time the Dutch team stopped short of making it among the best eight in the competition.

The 31-year-old captain of the Netherlands tallied a total of 217 points over his team’s 12 games of the Preliminary Phase, five clear of second-best Jesus Herrera of Cuba and 12 clear of third-best Yuki Ishikawa of Japan. The most Nimir scored in a single match was 27 points against Iran.

The same three players in the same order topped the ranking for the best attackers, with the Dutch striker leading the way with 184 successful spikes. His 25 aces put him on top of the best servers’ chart, four aces clear of next best Yuri Romano of Italy and Jesus Herrera. Nimir’s single match best were the seven aces he hammered against Serbia.

31-year-old Jani Kovacic will, however, delight the fans with his presence at next week’s Finals in Poland. He made a solid contribution to Slovenia’s qualifying seventh place in the Preliminary Phase and proved to be both the best digger and the best receiver of the competition so far. He made a total of 119 digs, beating the next best, his Argentinean counterpart Santiago Danani, by 11. The two were also in contention for best receiver, with Kovacic topping that cart with 82 successful passes, followed by Danani with 76. Japanese athletes completed the top three in both rankings – Tomohiro Yamamoto with 96 digs and Yuki Ishikawa with 74 passes, respectively.

In Argentina’s last match of the Preliminary Phase alone, 25-year-old Agustin Loser raised 10 kill blocks against Iran, but even before that high, he was already an emphatic leader of the best blockers’ ranking. Loser tallied an impressive total of 51 stuffs, leaving Iran’s Seyed Mousavi far behind with 35.

Bruno Rezende may give the home fans in Gdansk a lot of headaches as his team Brazil takes on hosts Poland in one of the quarterfinals on Thursday of next week. The experienced 37-year-old playmaker emerged as the best setter of the competition so far with a total of 230 successful sets, followed by USA’s Micah Christenson with 225 and Argentina’s Luciano De Cecco with 223.

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

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