Lausanne, Switzerland, June 23, 2016 - Bulgaria lost their three matches in Kaliningrad in the first week of this year's FIVB Volleyball World League. After losing in four sets to world champions Poland on Friday, they were defeated by coach Nikola Grbic's Serbia on Saturday and by hosts Russia on Sunday. Tsvetan Sokolov's 56 points, however, took the Bulgarian opposite straight to the top of the group's best scorer statistics, ahead of Ricardo Lucarelli of Brazil (52 points) and Matt Anderson of the United States (51).
Sokolov was his team's leading scorer in all three matches, claiming 15 points against Poland, 20 points against Serbia and 21 points against Russia. In the first encounter, the experienced Bulgarian was joint top scorer with Bartosz Bednorz of Poland. He was the sole top scorer of Bulgaria's matches against Serbia and Russia.
World League Group 1 statisticsBulgaria will hope to improve on their performances in week one when they take on Iran, Serbia and Brazil in Belgrade from Friday to Sunday.