The Netherlands men’s national volleyball team had a great week here in the Philippines as they took on some of the best in the world in the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
The Orange Tulips went up to a 5-3 win-loss record after amassing three wins against a lone defeat at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
And at the forefront of such a campaign is the captain and outside hitter Nimir Abdel-Aziz.
For him, it was such a great thing to have stepped up when he was needed the most. He said, “We had a great time here. It was fun.
“The fans were great and the gym is nice, so we had a very good time.”
Good time, though, is an understatement as the 30-year-old veteran put on a show for the Filipino crowd with 84 points, including a 31-point blast in that bounce-back win on Friday against Germany.
Abdel-Aziz and the rest of the Dutch team knew that this 3-1 run in the country give them a huge chance of making the final round in Italy, but he also admitted that the road will just get harder in their last week of the preliminary round.
“We always see it week by week. The last time was a hard week, and this week we recovered a little bit. And so, we’ll see what we can do in Poland.”
The Netherlands will try to solidify their hold of a top-eight spot when they take on China, Bulgaria, world number 1 Poland, and Italy, in Gdansk starting on July 5.
A top-eight finish after the preliminary round will extend Abdel-Aziz’s show in Bologna, Italy, as they go for a first-ever VNL championship.
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