Brno, Czech Republic, September 2, 2014. Poland became the first team to secure its spot in the semifinals of the 2014 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men defeating Romania by 3:0 (25-13, 25-22, 26-24) in today’s last match in Pool II. Slovenia knocked Belgium out of contention for a place in the last two competition days shutting out the incumbent bronze medalists by 3:0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-20) to start the fourth competition day in Brno. Thus, for both Romania and Belgium the tournament will be over after the match between them on Wednesday. Host Czech Republic and Turkey battled it out in their race for a spot in the semifinals and the spectacular five-set thriller between them finished at 3:2 (25-19, 18-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-13) in favor of the squad from the Mediterranean. The home side is still second in the standings, but the now the Turks and the Slovenes are only one and two points behind, respectively.
Slovenia vs. Belgium 3:0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-20)
Playing a little better in offense and reception, Slovenia was in control of the scoreboard through most of the first set, closing it at 25-22 with a powerful attack through the middle by Primoz Vidmar. The second set was completely one-sided. After 4-4, Slovenia dominated on court to break away and close the set at 25-16. The third set was relatively competitive through 18-17 in favor of the Slovenes, but in the conclusion they showed more character, also taking advantage of the opponents’ errors, to shoot up to 25-20 in celebrate victorious in straight sets.
Toncek Stern with 14 points for Slovakia and Lou Kindt with 12 for Belgium were once again the best scorers of their teams in this match.
Sander Depovere, captain of Belgium: “It was a very important game for us and we are disappointed with the result. This is all what I can say.”
Jernej Vrhunc, captain of Slovenia: “Perfect win! I want to congratulate my teammates, because they played very well today. We had huge motivation before the match. We hope that we will play like this tomorrow again.”
Joel Banks, head coach of Belgium: “We knew the value of this match and I think we are definitely going home. I think we did what we could do, but unfortunately they showed us that we are not at their level. Congratulations to Slovenia, they played good game and deserved to reach the victory today.”
Iztok Ksela, head coach of Slovenia: “It is a great win for us. We were very well prepared. We know Belgium and finally we played like we wanted. Every player did on the court what I told him before the match. We were very good in serving, in defending and in attacking too. This did not happen in the previous matches.”
Czech Republic vs. Turkey 2:3 (19-25, 25-18, 25-22, 23-25, 13-15)
The Czech Republic built up a 3-point lead at 6-3, but could not hold on to it for long after 12-9. The Turks put their act together, started serving, receiving and attacking well and not only tied at 12-12, but took control of the rest of the set to win it by 25-19. The second set was very competitive through the second technical time-out, but with setter Martin Licek putting in some excellent work and spiker Donovan Dzavoronok on fire again, the Czech Republic broke away to win by 25-18 to the satisfaction of the noisy crowd on the stands. The home fans inspired the Czechs for an incredible comeback at the end of the next set. After Turkey maintained control on the court for the entire set through 22-19, Jindrich Licek’s boys persevered for six points in a row to win by 25-22. The drama continued in the next set when the Czechs were on the way to repeat the same exploit as they scored 5 consecutive points to come back from 15-20 and even took the lead at 22-21, but this time the Turks showed more character in the crucial moments and won by 25-23. The tie-breaker was once again very even and tense, but it was the Turkish blocking that made the difference. At the decisive moments at the end of the set the Czechs also committed some errors that cost them the match as Turkey won by 15-13.
Donovan Dzavoronok impressed again with his scoring skills piling up 28 points for the Czech Republic. For Turkey, Cansin Ogbai Enaboifo and Yasin Aydin scored 18 and 17 points, respectively.
David Janku, captain of Czech Republic: “It is a very troublesome loss for us, we were defeated by two points in the tie-breaker. But it happened. What we have to do is not give up and win tomorrow. We won against Poland in a friendly match in August, so we can do it again.”
Yigit Gulmezoglu, captain of Turkey: “We were a little bit tired because we played five sets in our last game. We tried to do our best, improved all the elements and with some luck we won the match against the Czech team. We are very happy for that.”
Jindrich Licek, head coach of Czech Republic: “I am not sad about this loss, maybe the players are. But it is good lesson for them. I hope that they will not get down for tomorrow. We will fight, because the chance to reach the semifinals is still here. Poland is not unbeatable.”
Umit Hizal, head coach of Turkey: “We knew it was going to be a very hard game against the home team, but fortunately we can be happy with the win. I have to say that the Czechs played very well and it was a very tight match. But we know that we have to win again tomorrow."
Romania vs. Poland 0:3 (13-25, 22-25, 24-26)
Romania could not match Poland’s precision display in the first set and made 9 unforced errors against only 1 from the opponent. The Poles easily won the set by 25-13. After that they seemed to have allowed some relaxation, but still dominated on the court. The Romanians never took the lead after the second rally of the second set and lost it by 22-25. The next set continued in the same tempo. The Polish side continued to be the better one on the court and, despite allowing the opponent to first reach set point, stayed in focus and with two successful spikes and an ace logically won by 26-24 and deservedly qualified for the semifinals.
Captain Aleksander Sliwka topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 15 points for Poland. Teammate Tomasz Fornal, who played among Jacek Navrocki’s main seven in this match, finished with 14. Adrian Aciobanitei was Romania’s best scorer with 12 points.
Mihai Tarta, player of Romania: “Volleyball is not about one player, but about the team. We did not realize how good we can be. All players have to play well on the court to win a match like this. Because it was not a tough match, but we made many mistakes.”
Bartlomiej Mordyl, player of Poland: “It was not our best performance, but we are happy for the victory. I think the Romanians made many mistakes during the match, so it was the decisive factor in this game.”
Daniel Savoiu, assistant coach of Romania: “We have no reason to be happy, because we are out of this competition at this moment. Maybe we will be better next time.”
Jacek Nawrocki, head coach of Poland: “It was difficult for us to concentrate for this game, because after the previous match we knew that, if we win, we would be in first position in Pool II. We did not play well, but fortunately we won.”
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