Men's Volleyball Club World Championship 2023 Points Table: Updated Standings after Ahmedabad Defenders vs Itambe Minas
The Men's Volleyball Club World Championship 2023 kicked off on Thursday, December 6, at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru.
Both games on Day 1 — Halkbank Spor Kulubu vs Suntory Sunbirds and Ahmedabad Defenders vs Itambe Minas — turned out to be lopsided. Minas and Sunbirds topped the points table of Pool A and Pool B, respectively.
Japan's Sunbirds, making their first appearance in the competition, defeated the Turkish side 25-23, 25-23, 25-16 in a game that was wrapped off in one hour and 15 minutes.
Indian club Ahmedabad Defenders became the first representative from the country to play in the Club World Championship. However, they couldn't find an ideal start after going down in straight sets against the Brazilian club 22-25, 23-25, 19-25.
Itambe sit on top of Pool A with three points, likewise, Suntory Sunbirds currently lead Pool B with the same margin.
Table Toppers await stiff challenge from past Volleyball champions
Both table toppers will face a superior opponent on Thursday, December 7. Suntory Sunbirds will take on four-time world champions Sada Cruzeiro Volei in Match 3 while Minas face the defending champions Sir Sicom Perugia later in the day.
Squads
Itambe Minas
Austin Wilmot, Gustavo Orlando, Lucas Loh, Paulo Vinícios Ferreira da Silva, Murilo Radke, Samuel Neufeld, Vinicius Marcus, Michael Sanchez, Isac Santos, Renan Michelucci, Reis Nascimento, Kelvi Geovani, Lucas Bryan, Filipe Baioco
Coach: Guilherme Novaes Pinto Ferreira
Sir Sicoma Perugia
Davide Candellaro, Tim Held, Simeone Giannelli, Jesus Herrera, Alessandro Toscani, Wilfredo Leon, Wassim Ben, Sebastian Sole, Massimo Colaci, Flavio Resende, Kamil Semeniuk, Oleh Plotnytskyi, Roberto Russo, Gregor Ropret
Coach: Angelo Lorenzetti
Suntory Sunbirds:
Taishi Onodera, Yuito Takahashi, Atomu Torikai, Yuantai Yu, Junior Alain, Soshi Fujinaka, Masaki Oya, Kenya Fujinaka, Kenji Sato, Dmitriy Muserskiy, Ren Oniki, Yoshimitsu Kiire, Hiroki Nishida, Rui Takahashi, Kenshin Kuwada, Tatsuki Kashiwada
Coach: Kota Yamamura
Sada Cruzeiro Volei
Welinton Oppenkoski, Felipe Parra, Henrique Pedro, Henrique Otavio, Nicolas Uriatem, Guilherme Rech, Lucas Batista, Wallace de Souza, Souza Batista, Rodrigo Leao, Rodrigo Soares, Vitor Favarim, Gabriel Kavalkievicz, Lucas Saatkamp, Figueiredo Elias, Henrique Carlos, Angel Miguel, Antonio Martos, Pedro Joao
Coach: Filipe Augusto Ferraz