Russia and Italy to play for gold at #EuroVolleyU16W
News
Russia and Italy will play for gold on Sunday in Nyiregyhaza when this year’s #EuroVolleyU16W reaches its climax. Russia thumped Bulgaria in three quick sets before Italy played five sets to have the upper hand in a closely fought second semi-final with Turkey. Sunday’s clash will be a repeat of the 2017 gold medal match – when Italy beat Russia to claim the inaugural U16 European championship. Bulgaria and Turkey will fight for bronze, as over in Humenné Poland play Serbia and co-hosts Slovakia and Hungary lock horns in the matches for places 5-6 and 7-8, respectively.
Semi-finals 1-4 in Nyiregyhaza (HUN)
Russia vs. Bulgaria 3-0 (25-16, 25-13, 25-16)
Russia needed 67 minutes only to thump Bulgaria in the first semi-final and record their fifth 3-0 victory in six matches that they have contested since the start of the competition. Russia have only dropped two sets in the tournament so far – in their Pool I match with Turkey. Russia’s block worked extremely well (nine stuffs vs. only three for Bulgaria) as Marina Asliamova and Veronika Eremeeva combined to score 33 points – 17 and 16, respectively. Bulgaria’s Iva Dudova, by far the most prolific player in the championship so far, added another 16 to her personal tally but she could not do much to prevent the Russian dominant triumph.
Alina Afinogenova“I am really happy that we have qualified for the final and I think Turkey would be a better opponent for us, because we saw them play and won against them once already, so it should not be a problem to do that again.”
Middle blocker of Russia
Italy vs. Turkey 3-2 (25-21, 20-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-6)
The second semi-final was a much closer affair with Italy coming back from a 1-2 deficit to regroup and sweep aside Turkey in the fourth set and especially in the tiebreak – with the course of the match changing after the knee injury suffered by Turkish libero Ilayda Naz Gergef. With this victory, Italy avenged the loss suffered by the previous generation of Azzurrine in the gold medal match of the previous edition of #EuroVolleyU16W held two years ago in Trieste. After surprisingly losing 0-3 to Bulgaria in their first match at this year’s competition, Italy have claimed five wins in a row to secure the right to challenge Russia for gold on Sunday and try to repeat the feat achieved by their compatriots who won the inaugural U16 championship held in 2017 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Maia Carlotta Monaco“I am really happy that we can contest the gold medal match. We have improved a lot as a team since the start of the tournament, and we really wanted to show what we can do in this match.”
Middle blocker of Italy
Semi-finals 5-8 in Humenné (SVK)
Poland vs. Slovakia 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-18)
The home team representing Slovakia could lead only in the early stages of the first set (6-2), before Poland, thanks to excellent serves and attacks, clearly controlled the match until the end and deservedly won in straight sets. The best scorers were outside hitters Zofia Sobanty with 12 points and Michaela Kánová with 11 for Poland and Slovakia, respectively.
Petra Štefaníková“Right now, we are disappointed. We tried to fight, but we did not succeed in attack and we failed with our serve too. The fans were amazing again, they still stand by us and give us a lot of energy, and we thank them for everything. Tomorrow in the last match we will fight with all our power to finish this tournament with a victory.”
Libero of Slovakia
Serbia vs. Hungary 3-1 (19-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-22)
In the late match in Humenné, co-hosts Hungary surprised the Serbians in the first set (25-19) and claimed two set points in the second (24-22), but they failed to finish the set off, while the Serbians were successful with their first set point (26-24) and levelled the score. After that, the pre-match favourites took control and won the next two sets to advance to the match for places 5-6 on Sunday against Poland, while Hungary will take on Slovakia in a duel between the two organisers of this championship. As with previous matches of the tournament, Ana Mihajlovic and Cecilia Noemi Jambor top scored for Serbia and Hungary registering 21 and 19 points, respectively.