15/06/2014 18:39
Germany back on track with straight-set victory over Greece
2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Women
Larissa, Greece, June 15, 2014. After an unexpected setback on Friday where they had lost 1:3 to the home heroines, the players of Germany’s national team got back on track on Sunday improving their win-loss record in the prelims of the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League to 3:1. The young group currently placed under the guidance of Felix Koslowski scored a 3:0 victory over hosts Greece (27-25, 25-23, 25-20) to cement their second position in Pool B with nine points. The competition will resume next week with Germany playing two away matches with Spain in Madrid while Greece will be hosting Pool leader Poland in Thessaloniki.
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Things started pretty good for the home side that scored six consecutive points (6:0) to follow up very nicely on their historic win from Friday. However, Germany rapidly got back into the game and showed some excellent blocking to make it 14 all. Carina Aulenbrock helped Germany take the lead while standing behind the service line (18:15) but Greece fought back to draw level at 20. The game continued point by point up to 25 all before Anja Brandt scored two in a row to seal the final 27-25 for the guests.
Germany got a narrow margin in the early stages of the second set (7:5) and at this point Greece’s head coach Ioannis Kalmazidis replaced Panagiota Dioti with Maria Genitsaridi. The 20-year old wing-spiker helped Greece move to the front (11:7) but similarly to what had happened in the first set, the game turned into another point by point race. Once more it was Germany – with Anja Brandt and Laura Weihenmaier – to score the last couple of points (25-23).
After a close start up to 9 all, Germany opened the gap in the third set (18:13) and even though the hosts were able to cut their deficit to only two points (16:18) and even to a minimum (19:20), Germany responded by changing gear once more and finishing it off at 25-20.
Aulenbrock top scored for Germany with 14 points as Eleni Kiosi recorded 15 for Greece.
“It was a match very similar to the one we had played on Friday but the difference was that in the crucial moments of the first and second set we had problems in attack,” commented Greece’s head coach Ioannis Kalmazidis. “Even though we lost, I am convinced that we are improving as a team. We still need time and patience to get and display consistency as it is required at this level.”
“We have been working very intensively for the last 48 hours with some video sessions in order to fix the problems evidenced in the previous match,” commented Germany’s young mentor Felix Koslowski. “This applies especially to our block-defense system and I think that today we did a good job. I am really happy with the reaction of my team and today’s performance stands as a confirmation that though we won, we have a young team and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
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