25/09/2011 22:13
Romania prove too strong for Israel
2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women
Zrenjanin, Serbia, September 25, 2011 – Romania outclassed Israel in the fourth match of Pool C at the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women with a clean 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-14) in Zrenjanin Crystal Hall.
Top scorer for Romania was Nneka Obiamaka Onyejekwe, booking 19 points, whilst Israeli Tatiana Artmenko with 14 and Anna Velikiy with 12 points tried to compete with the power and strength of the Romanian team.
The fans saw high-quality volleyball in the first set of the deciding match of Pool C for a spot to the next round, in which Romania, showing more experience, kept the upper hand, winning 25-17.
As the second set started, a tough, interesting battle came up, in which the Romanian girls fought aggressively, earning two set points at the very end of the set and using the second one for a final 25-23 and 2-0 lead.
Romania kept control over the match and the result as the third set began. With their superior game and performance, the Romanians confirmed their hopes for a quarterfinal ticket. Romania never looked back finishing 25-14, enrolling important three new points in the standings of Pool C.
Romania head coach Darko Zakoc: “This victory is very important for us, for the ranking and the place in the next competition stage. I hope this will give us the boost we need for tomorrow, since we will play with the Polish team. I think we made my dream from yesterday true, we played better today, our reception worked well and nice attack solutions were showed. The second set was the key moment for us, we completely changed our style of playing and we improved our blocks, which helped us to break Israel’s defense.”
Romania captain Elena Butnaru: “For our team, this victory is of great importance, our moral and atmosphere in the team will increase for sure. The team is happy for this, and I hope tomorrow we will show the same performance, if not better. My teammates feel good and positive vibrations for tomorrow’s match.”
Israel head coach Arie Selinger: “Congratulations to the Romanian team. I have to say they outplayed us in every aspect, great defense, great blocks and better reception. We had a chance in the second set, an opportunity to change the momentum, but without much success as we took some wrong decisions. Congratulations again and we will get prepared for the next match.”
Israel captain Tatjana Frage-Gerber: “Congratulations to the Romanian team, they’ve done a good job tonight. They played better than us, their defense was strong, while our attacks were poor, so it was obvious we won’t win, we made too many mistakes. Nevertheless, we look positively to this match and we are looking forward to the last match in our pool.”
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