Almaty, Kazakhstan, June 22, 2016 - Spain and Chinese Taipei will open the FIVB Volleyball World League 2016 Group 3 tournament in Kazakhstan on Friday.
Head-to-Head
• This will be the first meeting between Spain and Chinese Taipei at the World League.
• Their only previous meeting this century came at the 2008 World Olympic Qualification tournament in Duesseldorf (Germany). Spain won 3-1, but both teams failed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
• Spain have won 10 of their 16 World League matches against AVC sides, including the last two (both in 2015 against Kazakhstan).
Spain
• Spain started their 2016 World League campaign with two wins over Mexico (3-2) and Germany (3-1), but lost their last match against Montenegro (3-2).
• Spain could lose consecutive World League matches for the first time since 2014.
• Only in 2015, Spain lost fewer than four World League matches in one edition as they won five of their six matches. Still, it was not enough to qualify for the Final Four.
• Andrés J. Villena is the top scorer in Group 3 with 84 points, including 78 spikes which is also most of all players.
Chinese Taipei
• Chinese Taipei won their first ever World League match against Puerto Rico in straight sets, but lost their two most recent matches in the competition against Kazakhstan (3-0) and Greece (3-1).
• Only in the second set against Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei failed to win 20+ points in a single World League set (25-18 defeat).
• Chen Chien-Chen is Chinese Taipei's top scorer at the World League with 32 points.