Busto Arsizio, Italy, September 23, 2011 – The Netherlands outclassed Spain in straight sets in the opening match of the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women at PalaYamamay Gym in Busto Arsizio.

The Netherlands dominated Spain with a powerful and constant performance, winning 25-15, 25-14,25-17 on the first day of Preliminary Pool D play in Busto Arsizio, Italy.

The first set began with both teams placing good winning spikes.  Spanish coach Gido Vermeulen called his first timeout at 10-11 without the desired effect. In fact, once the teams returned on the court, a winning serve of Ingrid Louise Visser determined the sort of the set and the Netherlands enlarged the gap and moved on with several good winning spikes forcing Spain to ask another timeout at 11-18. The Netherlands continued imposing their game and Spain suffered and couldn't react to overcome the Netherlands. Debby Stam Pilon placed the final point allowing the Dutch to easily win the first set 25-15.

The second set started without major problems for the Netherlands, and Spain was left behind right from the beginning. Vermeulen called his first timeout on a devasting score of 3-11.  Spain acted too faulty and the Netherlands seemed to be uncatchable. Dutch Captain Manon Flier added two service winners to move her team from 17-9 to 19-9. The Dutch eventually closed the second set out 25-14.

The beginning of the third set was a copy of the second. The Netherlands played without errors and Spain was not able to get into the match.  Visser placed a series of winning serves from 6-1 to 11-1 forcing Spain to call another timeout.  The Iberians now started to react, reducing the gap from 6-15 to 9-16.  Spanish Captain Amaranta Fernandez added two service winners to make it 12-17. At 17-22, the Spaniards still had a chance to win the third set, but the response of the Netherlands was immediate with three service winners from Laura Dijkema to close out the set and match.

Spain now needs to recover mentally and physically from this loss in view of their next match against Russia on Saturday.

Spain Coach Gido Vermeulen : "Congratulations to the Dutch team which played very well in defence. Our game method was not effective against their attacks. Tomorrow we will need to play a lot better than we did today."

Spain Captain Amaranta Fernandez : "I really can not understand what happened tonight : we played really bad. My compliments to the Netherlands who maintained their concentration throughout the match.  Tomorrow we can not permit ourselves such a performance."

The Netherlands coach Avital Selinger : "We were concentrated and well organized throughout the match, especially in the third set when Spain raised their defence quality, but my girls were very strong to keep the pressure high. We are happy about the result and are very confident for the next matches."
 
The Netherlands Captain Manon Flier : "I liked the way we were present on the field, we are happy with the result. We did everything that was necessary and we know that we can still improve.  We are very confident for the match of tomorrow."