Mladost claim hard-fought home win in #CEVCupW
News
On Thursday night, Croatia’s reigning national champions Mladost ZAGREB had to fight for five sets before emerging victorious from their 16th Finals home match with Belgium’s VDK GENT Dames in the CEV Cup (25-21, 18-25, 25-21, 20-25, 15-11). Mladost, which earlier this season had contested the CEV Champions League qualifiers, did have to cope with a more challenging opponent than they had expected, and everything remains wide open for the return match scheduled for next week in Belgium.
Aida Mehic, Katarina Pavičić and Andrea Mihaljević scored 14 points apiece for Mladost in a real team effort. Aurora Papac stepped up when her contribution was needed the most and in some of the key moments of the match. Eline Van Elsen registered as many as 27 points for GENT in their losing effort.
Darko Nojic“It was a very tough match played in a nice atmosphere here in Zagreb. We made too many mistakes in those sets that we lost but we stayed calm and composed in the tiebreaker where we did not make that many errors anymore. It is a nice victory for us, and we will soon start preparing for the return match in Belgium where we hope to secure our promotion to the next round.”
Head coach of Mladost ZAGREB
Aurora Papac, player of Mladost: “I am very proud of my team. Congratulations to the team from Belgium for putting up such a fight. I hope that we will win the return match scheduled for next week as well.”
Stijn Morand, head coach of VDK GENT Dames: “I am proud of my team since we had a rough start to the match, but we fought back, and I think we have a good opportunity to come out on top next week at home. We expect a full house, and it will be nice to enjoy the home court advantage while trying to reach the next round.”
Jodie Guilliams“I think we had a difficult start to the match, especially in relation to our passing, but we improved with the second set and from there we could put more pressure on the opponent. For those sets that we lost, this has a lot to do with the quality of our passing, however we still have a chance to win the return match and we very much want to continue our journey in the CEV Cup. We will do everything we can to achieve our goal.”
Player of VDK GENT Dames