Busy schedule for #EuroVolleyU17W before the Tuesday-break
News
Today's first match in pool I in Hradec Kralove was very interesting. Bronze medalists from the last European championship broke the Bulgarian playing system in the first two sets. Serbia had problems only in the third set, when they lost six points.
Diyan Boyukliev"The game was very interesting, it was great battle between two good teams, fortunately we cannot finish by tie, someone had to win, congratulation to both teams, I think that was pleasure for audience to watch this match. Despite young age of the girls, it was high level of volleyball."
Coach Bulgaria
Even though they got back into game and the end of the third set was even, Bulgaria was better in the attack in last balls and won the set. Fourth set was close too, in the dramatic end were better Bulgarian players and game had to decide a tiebreak. In it, Serbia was a little bit better, so they won also their third match in the pool.
Mirjana Musulin.“It was very hard game, we know Bulgarian team very well, we played a few tournaments against them. In the first two sets, we played very well, we focused on our game and in the third and fourth set, we started to be nervous and made mistakes. In last set we finally calmed down and won.”
Coach Serbia
The match between the Netherlands and Germany was the clearest game of the day. Dutch players were better in every activity and allowed the Germans to lead only in the first half of the first set.
Leana Grozer“The Netherlands team was better in pushing, and sometimes, we weren’t ready for it. It was good game, but opponent was better than we.”
Germany Opposite
After a dominant performance, the Netherlands easily won 3-0 and got a three-point victory. “It wasn’t easy game, yesterday we weren’t strong enough, and the task for today was to be stronger, and there a lot of energy, we showed really good fight. I’m really satisfied today; it was good match.” Said coach of the Netherlands William Klaver.
Last match of the day played Czech Republic against Croatia. The begging of the game was really nervous, and both teams made a lot of mistakes. Croatia’s players created fourth points lead and they won first set easily. Second set looked like first, Croatia led 24:18 and they had six set balls. But the Czechs were able to lower the score to only one point difference. Croatia used the sixth set ball and won the second set too. "It was a very stressful game for both teams, the Czechs were at home, their last games were very difficult, which gave us the opportunity to win, so we waited for chances, we went ball after ball, and it worked out." Said Croatian coach Miodrag Stojakovic.
In the third one, Czech Republic was better most the time, they had three points leading. But the end of the set showed really dramatic game. Croatia’s players gave made two big mistakes and Czechs won the set. in the fourth set, the Czech players were overruled by the referee's decision, and they could not get up mentally and lost the match. “Today, the Croatians were better in the game. The referee's decision in the fourth set obviously threw us off, but we can't make excuses for it, we didn't find a weapon against the Croatians today.” Said Czech coach Petr Klár.
The busy schedule of the 2022 Under 17 European Volleyball Championship continued with the third round of the basic groups before one free day. What did Group II bring to the National Sports Center Prostějov?
The opening match this time was absolutely clear. At the same time, Italy did not start in any dominant way, and after Finland's turnaround from 13:11 to 13:15, it looked like a partial surprise in the first set. The favorites, led by Esposito (she scored thirteen times in total), however, immediately switched to higher gears, pushing with serving and other activities. And they turned the rest of the encounter into their sleepy ride. They destroyed their opponents with long scoring streaks, fully demonstrated their comprehensive quality and achieved a crushing triumph 25:16, 25:13, 25:13.
Michele Fanni"From our side, it was an excellent match, mainly thanks to the attitude of the players. It was possible to change the mind set in the direction of solving ourselves, our own performance and the way to victory. I see this as a very important thing that worked perfectly today. That's why we played at a high level and achieved the partial goal without any problems," Italian coach Michele Fanni stated with satisfaction.
Coach Italy
In the next encounter, the biggest surprise of the Prostejov part of the championship so far was born, when the excited Slovenia unexpectedly smoothly overcame the previously undefeated Turkey 3:0 with an excellent game! The compact team around the excellently playing pair of props Šiftar + Pucelj had a rocket start, winning 25:16 in the opening set. During the second period, the improving Turks turned from 12:5 to 15:16 and in the third act even went ahead by 9:15, but in both cases the Slovenians returned to their previous comfort. And with powerful finishes, they won the match 25:22 and 25:20 respectively. The sensation was born!
"We had a really good passing game today, which allowed us to play almost anything on offense. In addition, the girls added a very high-quality service, Mija Šiftar and Maša Pucelj are also in excellent form, and everyone else did well too. These were the keys to our valuable victory, the entire team deserves praise for their team performance," commented Slovenian assistant coach Jaros Stekl.
For more than two hours after that, the battle between Poland and Hungary was filled with a lot of twists and turns in a top-down style. At the same time, the fourth act was of key importance, where the Polish women were losing a lot and the Hungarian women were heading for their first point gain in the table. But it didn't happen. Under pressure, they started to make a lot of mistakes, the opponents led by Sobanta (20) promptly took advantage of this and by turning the score around they finally won the result 26:24, 21:25, 25:20, 25:22.
"The opponent played very well, so it was a very difficult match for us, we had to fight hard for every substitution. A really tough fight was slowly heading to a tiebreak, but we managed to reverse the unfavorable course of the fourth set and can only be happy for the 3:1 victory. Of course, it is very important," sighed the Polish couch Waldemar Kawka.