Russia - Japan (full match)

Russia without big problems won against Japan in three sets. Russia has dominated head-to-head competition with Japan, winning 56 of 66 total contests. Russia was led by Dmitriy Ilinykh who scored 12 points in the victory, including three blocks. He was supported by Alexey Spiridonov with 10 points, who won the player of the match award. Leading all scorers was Kunihiro Shimizu, who scored 14 for Japan. Russia outblocked the host team by a count of 15 to 5. For Russia’s coach Voronkov, this match represented a chance to get back on track in the tournament, and put on a dominant performance so his team could feel better as they continue in Tokyo. He also gave a nod to the Kyoto fans, acknowledging that they made it tough for his team to play. Russia coach Andrey Voronkov: "Team Japan’s defense is very good, so we wanted to work on our attack, and I think it was effective today. We wanted to work on our block, and today it was good. The atmosphere was tough here in Kyoto gymnasium, but our performance was good. […] Today’s match was important for us. We lost yesterday and wanted to recover from that game. We wanted to give our best performance so we could build our confidence moving forward from today".

#KunihiroShimizu #DmitriyIlinykh #Japan #Russia #GrandChampionsCup2013