Varna, Bulgaria, September 22, 2018. Volleyball has a King and his name is Earvin Ngapeth! The French outside-spiker led his team to a remarkable win against Poland 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 23-25, 25-18) in Pool H at the 2018 FIVB World Championship! Ngapeth was absolutely incredible in all aspects of the game and finished the match as a topscorer with 26 points! Stephen Boyer added 16. For Poland Artur Szalpuk scored 12 points.
Poland started the match with great confidence and took an early 3-point advantage (4-1). Led by Earvin Ngapeth who was absolutely brilliant from the service line (4 aces!), France made a great come back (10-5)! In the next minutes Ngapeth continued to play like a real “Volleyball King”! The French star was unstoppable in attack, perfect in defense, and topped the list of the scorers in the opening set with 7 points. His incredible performance led the French team to 25-15.
In the second set Poland stabilized their reception and had 2-point advantage (9-7), but with great serving by Kevin Tillie and a good block, France made 4 points in a row (11-9). Nicolas Le Goff scored another ace (13-10), Ngapeth was perfect in attack, and Laurent Tillie’s players were two sets ahead after 25-18.
France continued to play really well in the third set, but with good block and after some unforced errors, Poland managed to take the lead (15-12). Laurent Tillie immediately tried to change the situation on the field making three substitutions - Julien Lyneel, Thibault Rossard and Antoine Brizard. They gave a chance to Earvin Ngapeth, Benjamin Toniutti and Stephen Boyer to take some rest and a few minutes later France was back in the game (21-22). Despite this, Poland managed to save the lead and won the set by 25-23.
In the fourth set Kevin Le Roux stole the show with an amazing save in defense and a huge single block (12-10). Vital Heynen took a time-out but immediately after the pause, Earvin Ngapeth made two great spikes in a row to secure huge French advantage (14-10). Until the end France continued to play better and achieved 4th victory in the tournament after 25-18.
This is a historical first French victory versus Poland in the World Championship history and a second consecutive Polish lost in the Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna.