Egypt and Poland exchange victories in FIVB World League

(BEIJING, June 15) -- One day after Egypt won its first-ever World League match, beating Poland 25-19, 14-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12 on June 13, the Poles got their revenge, posting a relatively easy victory over Egypt 25-20, 13-25, 25-17, 25-21 on June 14. Both matches were played at Moubarak Hall in Alexandria, Egypt.

"I want to congratulate all the Egyptian Volleyball family for this first ever World League victory," said Egypt's head coach Ahmed Zakaria after the first match. "I want also to thank the Egyptian spectators who were very important factor of this victory."

Egypt was led in the historic win by right attacker Ahmed Salah who scored 24 points to lead all players. His strong play in the deciding set put Egypt ahead early and allowed them to capitalize on mistakes from Poland to clinch the match.

Poland played stronger in the second match of the weekend, taking advantage of Egypt's undisciplined defense on route to a fours-set win.

"I believe we played much better today than yesterday as we improved our attacks and service that was very important in this victory," said Poland's head coach Raul Lazano. "Generally we performed better today in all volleyball skills as we studied well the Egyptian players from the last match ands succeeded to stop their attacks."

Egypt and Poland now both have a 1-1 record. Japan beat China in the other Pool D match on June 14, putting them temporarily at the top of the pool with a 1-0 record. The two Asian countries meet again on June 15 at 3:00 p.m.