The Russian team came out to win quickly as they swept Poland in the quarterfinals of Men's Indoor Volleyball at the 2012 London Olympics. Russia beat Poand 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 advancing to the semifinals.
Russia's Maxim Mikhaylov and Dimitriy Muserskiy led the team in scoring. Mikhaylov had 10 spikes, 2 aces and 1 block, finishing with 13 points. Muserskiy had 7 spikes, 3 blocks and 2 aces.
Russia looked too strong in the first set as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Poland battled back cutting the lead down to three making it an 7-5 game, but Russia pushed the lead by up to four cutting their rally by scoring two points making it 9-5.
Poland once again threatened with a run and skimmed the lead down to two points with the game 14-12 on behalf of Russia. This when Russia went nuts. They scored six straight points making it an eight-point differential, which was too much to overcome. The set ended with Jakub Jarosz misfiring on the serve.
Poland followed with a valiant effort in the second set.
They jumped out to a 5-2 lead that quickly evaporated as Russia went on a 4-1 run to tie the game at six. Poland went on a 6-3 run to take a three-point advantage as the scoreboard read 12-9, but the three-point cushion was not enough as Russia tied it at 14 and then at 15.
The match tied one last time at 19 before Russia took the definitive 20-19 lead. After this point they never trailed and finished the set off on a spike from Mikhaylov.
The third set quickly became the Russia's as they jumped out to a 11-7 lead after the score was tied at seven. The four-point lead augmented to five and then six as the Russian's led Poland 17-11.
The Polish came close late in the match as they trailed only by three as they went on a 13-7 run. Russia swatted Poland away on another spike, this time by Alexander Volkov, who finsihed with 7 spikes in the game.
Russia will now face either Germany or Bulgaria in the semifinals.
