Sofia, April 14, 2018. Germany continued their great performance at the 2018 CEV U17 Volleyball European Championship – Women by taking a second win in Pool II after storming to a 3-1 victory against Ukraine. Italy didn’t have any big troubles in their second match in Pool II and keep on collecting victories after beating 3-0 the team of The Netherlands. In the third match played in that Pool today, Romania and Turkey delivered a real fight, which was eventually won by the Turks 3-2.

Ukraine vs. Germany 1-3 (19-25, 19-25, 25-18, 23-25)

•    The biggest weapon for the winning side was again the great performance at the service line – 23 aces!
•    Germany started the match pretty well and won the first two sets by 25-19 mostly thanks to their serving skills.
•    The girls coached by Jens Tietböhl scored 15 aces and were really close to a straight 3-0 victory, but Ukraine improved their reception and answered with a 25-18 win in the third set.
•     In the fourth, Viktor Perebyynis’s girls had a five-point advantage by 22-17, but with great serving Germany made an amazing comeback and took this part by 25-23.
•     Sina Stöckmann scored the match point, putting this way a sixth ace to her name in this match. The German spiker finished as top scorer with 23 points, while her teammate Anastasia Cekulaev added 14 for the winners.
•    For Ukraine Kateryna Tkachenko scored 15 points.

Jens Tietböhl, head coach of Germany: “In the first two sets we were really good. We served pretty well, but then we made too many mistakes. Fortunately, we managed to come back and to win the match. I want to congratulate Ukraine, because they made some great things today. The key moment for us was in the end of the fourth set when we told our girls that they had to be brave, serving like they had done in the first two sets. They had to find their rhythm again and luckily to us, they did it.”

Italy vs. The Netherlands 3-0 (25-14, 25-12, 25-12)

•    The gold medallists from the 2017 CEV U16 Volleyball European Championship – Women, Italy played a perfect match and claimed a second victory in a row at #EuroVolleyU17W. This time they beat 3-0  the team of The Netherlands.
•    The girls coached by Marco Mencarelli controlled the game from the first point and the success was basically due to their great serve – block tactics.
•    Loveth Oghosasere Omoruyi finished as top scorer with 13 points.
•    Alessia Bolzonetti added 10 for the winning team.
•    For The Netherlands Mirte van der Sluijs and Jette Kuipers scored each five points.

Marco Mencarelli, head coach of Italy: “We played with a really good rhythm in this match. We showed great focus on the things we should do on the court and we didn’t let them play. This gave us the control in each of the sets from the very beginning. Our team has the potential to improve and grow match by match during this tournament, so tomorrow I expect an even better performance both individually and tactically.”

Eelco Beijl, head coach of The Netherlands : “They are not one, but two or three levels better than us at the moment. I think we started a little bit better than yesterday’s match, but Italy just didn’t give us a chance. Tomorrow is a new day, a new match, a different opponent, so I hope we can learn some lessons from today, to have a little bit more rhythm than the day before and we will see.”

Romania vs. Turkey 2-3 (23-25, 24-26, 28-26, 25-17, 9-15)

•    The Balkan derby in Pool II turned out to be a dramatic five sets thriller with only one winner – Turkey.
•    The players coached by Bülent Gunes won the first two sets but led by their great leader and captain Alexia Ioana Carutasu - Romania managed to fight back and go for the tie-break.
•    The game was equal in the final set but in the end Turkey was the stronger team and Damla Tokman scored the final point in this Volleyball masterpiece with a perfect block.
•    Sude Hacimustafaoğlu finished as top scorer of the match with 25 points.
•    For Romania Alexia Ioana Carutasu chipped in with 21.

Marius Macarie, head coach of Romania: “It was a very tough match. Both teams put a lot of efforts in defence. Maybe for us it was too hard to come back from 0-2 and equal the battle. This was it for today. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Last year we defeated Turkey 3-1, today was their day. In this Pool we have five equal teams and one big favourite. We still have three more matches to go and we will try to achieve a good result.”

Bülent Gunes, head coach of Turkey: “Today my team played good Volleyball. In some moments we made too many mistakes in reception. Last year at the previous European championship we lost against Romania in the Pool stage, now we are the winning side. I’m happy and the team is happy. Taking the victory was the most important thing. Tomorrow we will play against Italy, it will be a difficult match but we will prepare well and let’s see what will happen.”

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