Lausanne, Switzerland, June 3, 2017 - Slovakia and Australia come head-to-head for the very first time in an official FIVB competition when they clash on Saturday in Poprad - both coming from opening day wins over Japan and Portugal respectively.
Head-to-Head• These teams meet for the first time in a major competition.
• Slovakia have faced AVC opponents nine times before in the World League (including Japan yesterday), winning four times and losing five times (all against China).
• Until Friday’s win against Portugal, Australia lost nine World League matches in a row against European sides. This run started after a 3-1 win over Serbia in 2015.
Slovakia• Slovakia beat Japan 3-0 on Friday to start their World League campaign.
• This was the team’s 10th World League victory (compared to 16 defeats) and along the way they surpassed the mark of 50 sets won (now 51).
• Slovakia could now win back-to-back World League matches for the third time, after doing so in 2014 and 2016.
• Milan Bencz (18) and Matej Patak (15) were the team’s top scorers against Japan. Patak registered a 100% scoring rate in blocks with five points in five attempts.
Australia• Australia prevailed in an epic battle against Portugal, claiming a 3-2 win with a 20-18 score in the fifth set. Only once in World League history, Australia tallied more points than the 113 they had on Friday. In 2014, they beat Canada 3-2 with 115 points scored.
• This is the first time Australia won any of their first two matches in any World League campaign.
• Australia could win back-to-back World League matches for only the second time, after winning four straight during the 2014 season.
• Nathan Roberts was Australia’s top scorer with 29 points against Portugal. He converted 24 of 35 spike attempts (69%).