PARIS (Reuters) - Poland beat Slovenia 3-1 in men's volleyball on Monday to finally cross the quarter-final hurdle at the Olympics having been eliminated in the last-eight at every Games since 2004.
Gold medallists in 1976 and semi-finalists in 1980, Poland had failed to reach the medal rounds for 44 years. Now the number one ranked team in the world, they had also fallen in the quarter-finals in Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo.
Led by last year's EuroVolley MVP Wilfredo Leon's 20 points (14 kills) and opposite spiker Bartosz Kurek's 19, Poland's players got emotional after their 25-20 24-26 25-19 25-20 victory over Slovenia at the South Paris Arena 1.
"I think the tears described it best. I know how difficult it is after playing great volleyball in the group stage to keep it (going) in the quarter-finals," middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski said.
"Every Polish national team in volleyball in previous Olympic Games were playing great volleyball in the pool stages and, as the favourite in the quarter-final, it's very difficult to keep it.
"Maybe that was the spell (to break), to not play the greatest volleyball in the group stage, but being mentally tough and showing the best volleyball from the quarter-final."
Poland finished second in Pool B behind Italy, who had a perfect record with three wins to top the group.
Roared on by a loud crowd, Poland's players sank to the floor when a Slovenian spike went long on match point. They also had Iga Swiatek in attendance and the delighted tennis number one celebrated the victory with the players on court.
"It is really difficult to keep the mental toughness and energy throughout the whole game, it doesn't matter if it's three sets, four sets, or five sets," Kochanowski added.
"We had situations today that could end up in a different way, but it didn't thanks to the crowd. They did a hell of a job."
Poland will next play either the United States or Brazil, who play later on Monday. Italy play Japan and hosts France face Germany in the other quarter-final matches.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Paris; Editing by Alison Williams)
