Tartu, Estonia, August 24, 2014. Defending champions Turkey clinched the bronze medal in the 2014 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Women on Sunday after beating Greece 3:1 (18-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-15) at A. Le Coq Sports Hall in Tartu, Estonia. Anthi Vasilantonaki was the top scorer in the match with 25 points; Yagmur Mislina Kilic led Turkey with 17 kills. Turkey had ten blocking points to Greece’s seven.
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Turkey v Greece 3:1 (18-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-15)
Turkey’s nerves started to show early on with several errors that put them 4-8 down at the start of the much-awaited bronze medal clash in Tartu. Head coach Mustafa Suphi Doganci had to call his players off to settle them down. On the other side, Greece kick started into Sunday’s match, showing strong determination and an excellent offensive game. As a consequence, Greece quickly took the upper hand, opening a ten-point gap at the second technical timeout. Some spikes by Yagmur Mislina Kilic seemed to energize the Turks and they closed to within five points at 18-13. Vasilantonaki fired off two good hits to move Greece again forward and Alexandra Psoma eventually ended the first set in Greece’s favor at 25-18.
One set down, titleholder Turkey gradually started their engines, turning the tables early in the second frame. New setter Cansu Özbay led the Turks to a three-point advantage at the first technical break. Pelin Aroguz stretched the lead to 15-8 with five sharp serves in a row. Poor Greek serve and more offensive power were two reasons for the Turkish comeback in the second set. The young Greek talents tried their best to resist but could not cope with the energy and speed Turkey displayed at that moment of the bronze medal battle. Kilic and her teammates easily cruised to a 25-18 set win, levelling the duel to 1:1. Greece’s offensive quota had dropped from 48 to 25 per cent in the second set.
There was not much to separate the two teams until the middle stages of the third set before Vasilantonaki sent the Mikasa wide to offer Turkey a two-point lead at the second technical break. At 16-18, Greek head coach Konstantinos Papadopoulos sent in Aikaterini Papazoglou who turned around the score with four consecutive serves. However, it was not good enough. Two blocks by Arelya Karasoy on Vasilantonaki gave Turkey two set balls at 24-22 and Turkey continued their run until the final 25-23.
Although Greece jumped out for an 8-3 lead at the first technical break in the fourth set, they had not enough vitality to move the battle into a possible fifth and deciding set. Their offense almost entirely built on top scorer Vasilantonaki while the Turks showed more variants in their offensive game. At the second technical timeout, Turkey already led 16-13 and never looked back until 25-15. After 100 minutes of playing time, Ada Germen hammered the young Turks in heaven.
Turkey head coach Mustafa Suphi Doganci: "I'm happy to get a medal even though we had the target to play for gold. Greece played well today but I'm satisfied with the mentality my team showed."
Turkey captain Arelya Karasoy: "It might be our destiny to finish third like we did in the youth competition. Our moral after our defeat against Serbia was low but today we displayed our strength, especially in the last two sets."
Greece head coach Konstantinos Papadopoulos: "The fourth place is the best women’s result in Greek volleyball history so I can't complain. We had to wait 18 years to play in the final round. Now we go home without a medal but with a lot of experience. Today’s match was decided in the third set when we were very close to win.”
Greece captain Anthi Vasilantonaki: "We played well and put Turkey under pressure but they never gave up and finally we couldn't stop them."
Final Ranking:
1. Serbia
2. Slovenia
3. Turkey
4. Greece
5. Bulgaria
6. Czech Republic
7. Russia
8. Belgium
9. Italy
10. The Netherlands
11. Finland
12. Estonia
One week before the men’s U20 national teams will battle for medals in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Estonia and Finland were in the spot light for the prominent CEV event at Tartu’s A. Le Coq Sports Hall that hosted Pool I and Tampere’s Exhibition and Sports Centre featuring Pool II. A total of 38 matches were played during the tournament, running from August 16-24, 2014.
Picture: Anthi Vasilantonaki (No. 1) and Zacharoula Giannelou (No. 15) could not stop the strong Turkish offense in Sunday’s battle for bronze.
Click here for more info on the Final Round of the 2014 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Women.