Volleyball
Australia wins World League Group 2 Final Four to join elite Final Six in Florence
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Article Sat, Jul 12 2014
Sydney, Australia, July 12, 2014. Australia thrilled a capacity home crowd to beat France in five hard fought sets (25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 16-14) to qualify for next week’s FIVB Volleyball World League Final Six in Italy. The rookies from Belgium finished their first World League campaign in third place after shutting out their neighbours from the Netherlands in three straight sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-21).
“It’s something so big and so special for us,” Australia’s team captain Aidan Zingel said after the victory. “To be the underdogs and perform again is something special. We’ve become a whole different team, and it’s phenomenal. I’m so happy to be part of it.”
It was an incredible turnaround for a team that finished bottom of its pool, and only qualified for the semi-finals as the host nation. The result seemed to shock even Volleyroos coach Jon Uriarte.
“I couldn’t say two or three months ago that we were going to do something like this, but on the other hand I’ve got a big belief about the way we work,” he said. “For 14 years we have been playing away, and finally at home we got a chance to show people how spectacular our sport is.”
For France, on the other hand, it was a disappointing result, after they went through the World League group stage losing only three matches. But head coach Laurent Tillie said his team was outplayed. “We tried many solutions, we changed many players, but even when we thought the match was finished in the fourth set, we managed to come back,” he said. “We lost against a very good team from Australia. They put a lot of pressure with block, service, spike, even defense. Yes I’m disappointed we lost, but it was a very good game.”
French captain Benjamin Toniutti said it was a difficult loss for his team. “I feel bad because we came back in the fourth set and then we lost the fifth 16-14, which is very difficult because we had such a good World League, we only lost three matches and now we don’t go to Florence,” he said. “We saw yesterday that Australia played very well, and I think they played much better again today.”
Australia’s Thomas Edgar led the way again on the points table, notching 24 points on the night. France’s Mory Sidibé with 20 points and Earvin Ngapeth with 18 were the next best, while Australian captain Zingel continued his outstanding World League at the net, blocking for six points.
Earlier in the night Belgium had a comfortable straight-sets win over the Netherlands (25-17, 25-22, 25-21) to finish third in group two. Gert Van Walle led the way for Belgium with 14 points, with middle-blocker Pieter Verhees next best on 13 points. For the Netherlands Maarten van Garderen topped the charts with 13 points followed by Ewoud Gommans with 12.
Dutch coach Edwin Benne said his team had a poor weekend. “I’m not a little disappointed, I’m very disappointed,” he said. “Obviously a weekend with zero set wins and six losses is tough, and a way below our level. We should have been able to make it a fair match. Today we had no power and no stamina and no extra motivation in the moments we needed to perform. We had no extra gear: we could feel the whole match we were out of control.”
For Belgian captain Hendrik Tuerlinckx finishing third was a small compensation for losing to France the previous night. “We didn’t come here so far to lose two games,” he said. “We had a pretty good World League, so it would have been disappointing to lose twice. Last night was pretty tough, but I think everybody realised it was just one more game, we had to reload. It was important to play a better game than we had done yesterday.”
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“It’s something so big and so special for us,” Australia’s team captain Aidan Zingel said after the victory. “To be the underdogs and perform again is something special. We’ve become a whole different team, and it’s phenomenal. I’m so happy to be part of it.”
It was an incredible turnaround for a team that finished bottom of its pool, and only qualified for the semi-finals as the host nation. The result seemed to shock even Volleyroos coach Jon Uriarte.
“I couldn’t say two or three months ago that we were going to do something like this, but on the other hand I’ve got a big belief about the way we work,” he said. “For 14 years we have been playing away, and finally at home we got a chance to show people how spectacular our sport is.”
For France, on the other hand, it was a disappointing result, after they went through the World League group stage losing only three matches. But head coach Laurent Tillie said his team was outplayed. “We tried many solutions, we changed many players, but even when we thought the match was finished in the fourth set, we managed to come back,” he said. “We lost against a very good team from Australia. They put a lot of pressure with block, service, spike, even defense. Yes I’m disappointed we lost, but it was a very good game.”
French captain Benjamin Toniutti said it was a difficult loss for his team. “I feel bad because we came back in the fourth set and then we lost the fifth 16-14, which is very difficult because we had such a good World League, we only lost three matches and now we don’t go to Florence,” he said. “We saw yesterday that Australia played very well, and I think they played much better again today.”
Australia’s Thomas Edgar led the way again on the points table, notching 24 points on the night. France’s Mory Sidibé with 20 points and Earvin Ngapeth with 18 were the next best, while Australian captain Zingel continued his outstanding World League at the net, blocking for six points.
Earlier in the night Belgium had a comfortable straight-sets win over the Netherlands (25-17, 25-22, 25-21) to finish third in group two. Gert Van Walle led the way for Belgium with 14 points, with middle-blocker Pieter Verhees next best on 13 points. For the Netherlands Maarten van Garderen topped the charts with 13 points followed by Ewoud Gommans with 12.
Dutch coach Edwin Benne said his team had a poor weekend. “I’m not a little disappointed, I’m very disappointed,” he said. “Obviously a weekend with zero set wins and six losses is tough, and a way below our level. We should have been able to make it a fair match. Today we had no power and no stamina and no extra motivation in the moments we needed to perform. We had no extra gear: we could feel the whole match we were out of control.”
For Belgian captain Hendrik Tuerlinckx finishing third was a small compensation for losing to France the previous night. “We didn’t come here so far to lose two games,” he said. “We had a pretty good World League, so it would have been disappointing to lose twice. Last night was pretty tough, but I think everybody realised it was just one more game, we had to reload. It was important to play a better game than we had done yesterday.”
For further information visit www.fivb.org