Volleyball News
At 2009 FIVB Men's Junior Volleyball World Championship, Pune, India

Pool E
India bt Belgium 18-25 25-19 25-16 22-25 15-11
Argentina bt Russia 25-19 25-23 25-18

India made MORE history reaching semi-final of ongoing Junior Volleyball World Championship at Pune ... Before this first-time they reached second level first time and today they shocked everyone reaching semifinal beating Belgium boys 3-2.

Indian boys started slowly and Belgium boys take full advantage of winning first set easily but that turned to be wake up call for our boys ... They won next 2 sets with solid all court game with excellent blocking and exceptional smashes ... But in 4th set they lost focus, may be they were thinking too early about victory celebration, and managed to lose this set which they should win ... In crucial 5th set both teams started evenly but at 4-all Indian boys cut loose, I think turning point of the set was 2 service winners from Naveen Jacob Raja and before that also from Gurinder Singh.

Gurinder Singh scored highest 26 points and in combination with Naveen Raja who scored 20 points ... Very interesting stats where Belgium won nearly every statistical category with slim margins of 60-59 in spikes, 14-11 in blocks and even at 3-all in aces ... But India take advantage of 32 Belgium errors and made only 19 of its own to make up the difference.

Argentina won Pool E with another easy victory ... They r facing Cuba who finished 2nd in Pool F ... Indian side will be facing tough Brazilian side who topped Pool F.