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It was truly like the Clash of the Titans! Commenced on September 30, FIVB Road to Paris Olympic Qualifiers in the Japanese capital will run up to October 8. The USA’s volleyball team has been dominating the tournament with its exceptional talent and hard work. While the USA’s volleyball team was sitting atop the table of the pool B with with their unbeatable streak of four matches, another team was not far behind. Equalling the number of wins with the USA, they were also unbeaten while sitting on the shoulders of the American team.

Slovenia, on their way to the close second spot in pool B, defeated teams like Egypt, Finland, Turkey, and Tunisia. While the two teams went into the court with such a lineup of previous matches, mercury was bound to soar. It was not without reason that the match was dubbed as one of the toughest challenges for Team USA.

The Winning streak of Team USA

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On Friday, defeating one of their toughest oppositions, Slovenia, in a pool B match, Team USA registered a fifth consecutive win in Tokyo. They defeated Slovenia by 3-1 while the final scorecard at the end of the game was 25-18, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18.  The US national team led the game in kills and blocks with 53-44 and 10-3 while both teams got 3 aces each. 30 errors by Slovenia were converted into points by Team USA while the team itself made 28 errors. USA Volleyball posted about the much-anticipated match on their X account saying, “The U.S. Men 🇺🇸 had their resolve tested in a 3-1 (25-18, 21-25, 25-20, 25-18) win over Slovenia 🇸🇮 at the FIVB Road to Paris Olympic Qualifier in Tokyo.”

It was a high-performance play by Anderson, he was the lead scorer with 16 points comprising 14 kills and 2 aces. DeFalco was a close second with 13 points comprising of 12 points and 1 block. Jendryck and Smith both added 10 points each. Erik Shoji had five digs and six receptions. It was an overall satisfying performance by the players but it was a challenging game for the players. Slovenia was not just giving the game easy to the team.

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The road to Paris Olympics

Even with this stellar run, Team USA is far from being content, it seems. Gameplans are on for them. Head coach John Speraw told VolleyballMag.com, after the match, “For tomorrow we can just focus on the first point of the next match. I don’t know exactly what the scenarios are. We just have to keep winning.” Libero Erik Shoji of USA echoed the coach’s words as he said, “We are going to learn from this one, celebrate a little bit and then watch the Serbia and Japan game.”

Read more : Canadian Teenagers Shatter Underdog Tag as They Win Gold Medal While Competing in a Bigger Age Group

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There are still two matches left for Team USA, they play their next match with Serbia on 7 October and then with Japan on 8. The prospects of Team USA qualifying are promising with them taking the top spot in the pool. Will they be able to keep the undefeated streak. Team USA might just be one of the strongest contenders for the Olympic Gold in Paris 2024.

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