volleyball wrap up.

VOLLEYBALL: The Australian men’s indoor volleyball team’s Olympic journey started and finished with a fairytale.

Volleyball wrap up

After overcoming the more fancied China to qualify for a place in the 2012 Games, the team had just 49 days to prepare for the opening match of their Olympic campaign.

While losing their first match against Argentina, they showed they were more than competitive and as the tournament progressed, the Aussies seemed to ‘grow’ into it, completing the fairytale with their giant-killing 3-1 victory over the No. 3 seeds Poland.

While failing to advance to the quarter-finals with a 2-3 win-loss record, they made the volleyball world stand up and take notice as their performances belied their world ranking of 22.

In their other preliminary round matches, Australia beat Great Britain 3-0 and lost to Italy 3-2, Argentina 3-0 and Bulgaria 3-0 ... but they were in positions to win all of the matches they lost.

With all 12 members on Olympic debut, the Australian men’s indoor volleyball team will be one to watch at the 2016 Games in Rio.

Australian coach Jon Uriarte said the victory over Poland was the ‘perfect’ conclusion to a campaign that started 13 months ago and underlines the ‘evolution’ of his young team.

“To picture where we were 13 months ago, it’s been an amazing evolution from there,” Uriarte said.

Captain Igor Yudin said: “We wanted to leave the Olympics with a feeling of no regret and just be proud of what we have achieved.

“For us the whole thing (Olympics) has been huge. The win (today over Poland) showed the potential this team can possibly have in the next year or two.”

URL:london2012.olympics.com.au/news/volleyball-wrap-up