23/06/2012 18:00
Austrian guys lose last match but take many positives from EL adventure
2012 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Hard, Austria, June 23, 2012. Austria men’s national team finished its campaign in this year’s CEV Volleyball European League by losing in straight sets (18-25, 25-27, and 20-25) to the Czech Republic in front of the home audience that had got together at the local sports hall in Hard. With five wins out of 12 matches, still this remains Austria’s best result in the competition. David Konecny paced the Czechs with 17 points while Thomas Zass top-scored once again for Austria, this time by totaling 15.
“We can be happy with our results” said the President of the Austrian Volleyball Federation (OeVV), Peter Kleinmann. “Since last year’s EuroVolley the group has developed tremendously and only one year ago I would not have thought we could play at this level. Yesterday and today we clearly saw that the players were getting tired after such a demanding schedule. They need a rest now before they take on the qualification for the 2013 European Championship” he added.
“The second set was very close but we did not play good in the first and third section of the game” said head coach Michael Warm. “We did many service mistakes but anyway the match was not as one-sided as the final result, a 3:0, may suggest. At this moment we cannot take that kind of games if we do not play our best. I have seen some fatigue and we did not have the right grip in the end”.
“Our start was just awful and our service did not work at all, while the reception was not that good too” said Austrian spiker Alexander Berger. “We lost the second set after a very close run and that determined the fate of the game. Anyway, we have accomplished our mission to win five matches in this edition of the European League”.
“We really wanted to win this game as clearly as possible to preserve some chances to qualify to the final four waiting for the results of the other Pool” said Czech mentor Stewart Bernard. “I am happy because today we showed good consistency in our play”.
In the other match of the day the Netherlands re-asserted their supremacy in the group beating Turkey 3:1 (27-25, 17-25, 25-23, and 25-21). The Turks got the chance to call for the tie-break as they went up by 4 points in the fourth set but eventually failed to go for the 2:2.
“Today I gave some playing time to the guys who so far did not play that much. We did not show the right consistency all the time but in the end it was enough to win” said Dutch head coach Edwin Benne.
“The team is progressing but still not able to play top Volleyball for a complete match. Anyway, we look forward to the final four coming up next week in Ankara as we are eager to play in front of our fans” stressed Turkey’s mentor Veljko Basic.
Click here for more information, including detailed stats of the matches
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