Zenit Kazan Overcome Al-Arabi in Four Sets

Doha, October 14 (QNA) - Zenit Kazan defeated Al- Arabi Doha 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 29-31, 25-18) in Pool B of the Men's FIVB Club World Championship at Aspire Zone Hall on Sunday. Evgeny Sivozhelez topped the winning side with 22 points as three other teammates also scored in double digits. Matt Anderson and Maxim Mikhaylov added 16 and 15 respectively while Nikolay Apalikov contributed 10. Christian Pampel finished with a match-high 23 points for Al-Arabi followed by Ribeiro Renan and Ahmed Al Bakhet eeach with 13. Matti Ovainen tallied 12 points. Zenit Kazan held 9-7 and 4-3 advantages in the blocking and service winners departments. The winners made 25 unforced errors to 30 by the defeated side. Speaking at the post-match press conference Al Jamaani Saeed, captain of Al Arabi Doha: "We played against one of the best teams, it s not easy, but we are getting a lot of experience for participating in this Championship and we hope to perform in the next matches." Mauro Grasso, coach of Al Arabi Doha: " We really tried hard to play against one of the best teams with experienced players who played in different Championships, since we have only two weeks to prepare the team for this event. I m proud of my team and we hope to do better tomorrow and in the next matches. We couldn t have a better performance. Also, we will try to recover for tomorrow to win against the Polish Team." Vladimir Alenko, coach of Zenit Kazan: "We are happy to win this game. We hope to play better tomorrow. I believe we played well but because was the first game it was not easy." (QNA)