RIMINI, Italy, June 5 (Xinhua) -- France twice rallied from one set down to beat Japan 3-2 here on Saturday for its fifth win in the 2021 men's Volleyball Nations League.
The French improved to a 5-1 win-loss record with the hard-fought 21-25, 25-22, 24-26, 25-21 and 15-11 victory while Japan slipped to 3-3.
Jean Patry had 16 kills, two blocks and one ace to lead four French spikers in double scoring digits. Yuki Ishikawa's game-high 25 points turned out to be in vain as Japan suffered its third loss in a row.
"It was a tough battle - it's always tough to play against the teams that receive so well like Japan do. We knew that they would defend a lot, and they did it - as always. We also defended a lot, so it was interesting," said French captain and setter Antoine Brizard, who finished with seven points.
Brazil and Poland also collected their fifth wins in sixth tries. Brazil came from one set down to beat Serbia 23-25, 25-23, 25-15 and 25-22 and Poland also had a 3-1 comeback win over Russia 21-25, 25-19, 25-19 and 25-14.
Poland and Brazil both reaped 15 points from five 3-0 or 3-1 wins after six rounds of round-robin play in the 16-team preliminaries, with Poland leading the standings ahead of Brazil with better set ratio. France is third with 14 points.
In Saturday's other matches, the Netherlands lost to Argentina 3-0, Slovenia was beaten by Germany 3-1, the United States swept Australia 3-0, Iran saw off Bulgaria 3-0 and Italy outlasted Canada 3-2.
The top four finishers from the preliminaries will qualify for the semi-finals. Enditem