Kladovo, Serbia, April 2, 2013. Turkey ease past host Serbia in Tuesday’s top duel of Pool II. The Turks improved their win-loss record to 4-0 at the 2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship – Girls, thus securing Sahin Catma’s squad a well-deserved semifinal spot. Germany beat France 3:1, while Russia booked their first win here in Kladovo by defeating the Netherlands 3:1.
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Turkey vs. Serbia 3:0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-23)
Titleholder Turkey romped past Serbia 3:0 here on Tuesday night for its fourth win at the 2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship – Girls, while Serbia lost their first match at the tournament. Following a thrilling victory over Germany yesterday, Turkey continued to show their consistency in the 25-18, 25-19, 25-23 sweep of Serbia.
Ada Germen scored 11 points for Turkey to lead the game while Pelin Aroguz added 8. Bojana Milenkovic led the Serbian team with 15 points. Serbia committed 34 (!) errors, Turkey only 20.
It was a one-way duel in the first set with Turkey controlling the match in almost all aspects of the game. The Turks quickly led 13-5 and never looked back.
Serbia started strongly with powerful serving and lethal spikes to take a 5-2 lead in the second set. The upcoming Turkish stars, however, managed to keep positive poise with powerful serves, while the Serbians' poor reception and serve errors got their way to keep the winning momentum.
The two sides fought harder in the third set and their gap never exceeded two points after the second technical break before the more experienced Turkey brought up match point at 24-23. As Cansu Ozbay came from the service line to serve a ball home, the reigning champions took the match 25-23.
Serbia head coach Marijana Boricic: “We committed too many mistakes tonight; in almost all parts of the game. Turkey played much better, especially in defence. As a consequence of today’s result, we need to win at least one set tomorrow.”
Turkey Head Coach Catma Sahin: “We knew that we were facing a very strong Serbian team. However, my girls felt they could win, and I am glad they did.”
France vs. Germany 1:3 (26-28, 19-25, 25-22, 13-25)
Germany resisted a strong challenge to overpower France 3:1 in a pulsating girls’ CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship match on Tuesday, the fourth day of the tournament in Pool II. Germany, holding a two to two win-loss record at the tournament, wrapped up the 112-minute tussle 28-26, 25-19, 22-25 and 25-13.
Germany`s Julia Schäfer topped the scorers chart with 29 points, including 8 aces and 3 blocks.
Two sides traded runs in the first set to tie it at 12-12 before France went ahead at 17-15 with Helena Cazaute and Juliette Fidon on fire. Germany fought back their trademark offense as Julia Schäfer and Steffi-Martha Kuhn proved some good kills to lead their teammates to a hard-earned 1:0 set advantage.
Inspired with the first set win, Germany made an early effort to go ahead 6-2 in the second set and led 8-5 in to the first technical timeout. France slowly narrowed the gap but couldn’t prevent Tietböhl’s team to storm to 25-19.
France bounced back strongly in the third set, racing to a 22-18 lead, but Germany steadily pulled it back to 22-22. However, it was France's turn to score three consecutive points, giving “les bleus” their hope for victory back.
Nevertheless, the fourth set was again all-German. Led by an impressive Annegret Holzig, who was omnipresent on the court with powerful spikes, solid block work and a couple of service winners, Germany cruised to victory.
Germany head coach Jens Tietböhl: „We had to win today and fortunately we did it. Of course, we depend on other results, but we have to do our job and win tomorrow as well. Then we shall see.”
France head coach Serge Marouteau: „The German team played well. We made many mistakes, especially with serving.”
The Netherlands vs. Russia 1:3 (25-18, 19-25, 18-25, 14-25)
Russia came back from one set down to defeat the Netherlands 3:1 in Pool II on Tuesday night. It was the first win for Russia at the 2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship – Girls. The Dutch girls drop to a two to two win-loss record at the tournament.
Russia’s Anastasia Lopatina topped the scorers chart with 20 points, including 4 aces. Angelina Sperskayte helped her with 15, including 5 blocks.
The Netherlands experienced the better start into today’s capital match against powerhouse Russia in contention for the top eight spots. The “Oranjes” controlled the match until 10-6 in the second set before Russia picked up pace and draw level at 13-13. It was the turning point of the match. Angelina Sperskayte and Anastasia Cheremisina booked an impressive double-block winner to allow Russia make it 1-1 with a scoreboard of 25-19.
The Russian girls continued their good form in the third and fourth set. Even though the Netherlands never gave up; the upcoming Russian stars had grown in confidence and never looked back.
The Netherlands head coach Saskia van Hintum: „We started strongly but Russia fought back courageously. They eventually discovered their rhythm, and we couldn`t manage to find our way around.”
Russia head coach Yury Shchuplov: „Today we showed our real potential, and we are very happy for it. However, tomorrow we must play even better and book yet another victory.”
The Preliminary Phase of the 2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship – Girls is split into two pools of six teams with the top two from each pool advancing to the semifinals. Pool I comprises host Montenegro, Italy, Slovenia, Greece, the Czech Republic as well as Poland. Pool II sees the local heroines from Serbia defending their reputations versus Russia, Germany, France, Turkey and the Netherlands.
The final ranking of the 2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship – Girls will determine the six teams representing Europe at this year’s FIVB Girls' Youth World Championship coming up later this summer in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, as well as the eight nations taking part at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Utrecht (NED).
The matches of preliminary Pool I as well as all semi-final and final matches are available live and for free at http://www.laola1.tv. On the other hand, all matches of Pool II are streamed on the official website of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia and namely under the following URL: http://eng.ossrb.org.
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