Serbia regroup after semi-final setback to secure sixth EuroVolley medal in a row

Serbia have prolonged their streak of EuroVolley medals to six editions in a row following their 3-1 victory over Poland in the ‘small final’ contested on Sunday afternoon at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall in Istanbul. Only the former Soviet Union enjoyed a longer such run in the history of the competition. With Tijana Boskovic and all other key players performing much better than they had done in the semi-final with Türkiye, Serbia managed to edge a highly competitive Polish national team to finish their CEV Trendyol EuroVolley 2026 Women campaign with a coveted bronze medal. Poland, on the other hand, could not secure their first podium finish since the 2009 edition contested on home soil – when they had won the bronze medal game with Germany. 

Poland vs. Serbia 1-3 (21-25, 19-25, 25-15, 18-25) 

This match was a much-needed opportunity for redemption for both teams after the disappointment resulting from the previous day’s semi-final losses, especially for Serbia, whose performance in the matchup with Türkiye had looked below par. When it comes to EuroVolley fixtures, Serbia had most recently beaten Poland in the pool stage of the 2023 edition (3-1), whereas Poland’s last win on the EuroVolley stage over Serbia dated back to the 2007 pool phase. With this the last match of the national team season, one final push was required in order to complete the 2026 campaign on a high note and after a close start up to 11-all, Serbia broke away with Tijana Boskovic and Aleksandra Uzelac looking a way more effective than in the semi with Türkiye the previous day. However, Poland put up much resistance by cancelling as many as four set balls for Serbia until Magdalena Jurczyk sent her serve out of bounds for a 25-21 set win for the side captained by Maja Ognjenovic. Boskovic showed her real quality by scoring as many as nine points in the opening set alone on a mind-boggling 82% success rate in attack. 

As the arena started to fill up for the subsequent grand finale of the tournament between Türkiye and Italy, the audience enjoyed some long and entertaining rallies but Serbia were again the dominant force. They slowly but surely increased their advantage (16-12, 21-16) and remained composed to double their lead in the match with another nine points scored by an outstanding Boskovic, five by Uzelac and an overall tally of five blocks.  

Poland were not yet ready to surrender and they fought with everything they had in the third set where Serbian coach Zoran Terzic had to leave the court for a while as he was apparently feeling unwell and requested medical assistance. He returned to the sidelines shortly afterwards but Poland had secured an early advantage that Serbia could not make up for anymore. Magdalena Stysiak was Poland’s real ‘ace’ with a personal tally of 11 points well supported by Paulina Damaske with six. Serbia’s rather poor reception and consequently weak attacking game as well (35% and 30%) were responsible for their setback at this stage of the match as Poland pulled off a massive 25-15 set win.  

A tiebreak was not to be ruled out and yet Serbia mobilised the strength required to find their way back into the match in the fourth set where they initially trailed (6-8) but responded well with Maja Ognjenovic using all options – and primarily Boskovic and Uzelac – to secure the points needed to finish it off without resorting to a fifth set. Boskovic (29 points) in the end outscored Stysiak by one point only as Serbia recorded as many as 10 blocks throughout the match.