Hamza Nagga in a blocking attempt against Chinese Taipei
Bijelo Polje, Montenegro, June 4, 2017 –
Hamza Nagga led the way, especially with his prolific scoring in offence and on the block, to Tunisia’s second win in the 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League, as the African side claimed a 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-15) victory over Chinese Taipei in Bijelo Polje on Sunday.
Quick links - Volleyball:
Nagga was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, of which 14 spikes, four kill blocks and one ace. His teammate
Chokri Jouini added another 17 points to Tunisia’s tally.
Hong-Jie Liu and
Tsung-Hsuan Wu split the top scoring honours on the opponents’ side with 16 points each.
These two teams had never met each other in a major competition before. The official count is now open with a victory for Tunisia.
Chinese Taipei opened the first set better for an 8-4 lead, but after the first technical time-out, the Tunisian team came back to just one point behind (11-12). Chinese Taipei defended well and went on the second technical time-out with a comfortable 3-point lead. They kept it up through the end of the set and finished it off at 25-19.
In a total opposite situation in the second set, the Tunisian team went for a quick lead of 4-1 and with a result of 8-5 went on the technical time out. They only increased and improved the level of their game to break further away to 19-14 and then win the set by 25-19.
The beginning of the third set was a great battle between the teams, but Tunisia stayed in the shape to gradually pace up their rhythm towards a 17-11 lead. Chinese Taipei sped up their game and partially recovered to get back to two points behind at 18-20, but the Africans attacked with full strength again and took this set with a 25-21 close.
Again, in the fourth set Tunisia showed a very strong game. They quickly broke away with a four-point gap at the first technical time-out and the continued to widen it towards an easy and impressive 25-15 to close the match in their favour.