Thessaloniki, Greece, June 21, 2014.  After celebrating its first victory in the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Women, against Germany in the second leg of the competition in Pool B, Greece achieved two consecutive wins at home against Poland in the third leg.  The second one, by 3:1 (25-19, 16-25, 25-21, 25-22) on Saturday, was a special milestone for the local heroines.  In any of the previous four seasons when Greece’s women participated in the CEV European League, it has never been able to celebrate more than two victories and now its win-loss record is already 3-3.

Greece started out strong, with Eleni Kiosi scoring several points to make it 8-5 and then 12-8, but Poland bounced back to make it 15-15.  Two consecutive blocks from the hosts and a few unforced errors from the visitors gave Greece another solid lead and the home heroines finished the set at 25-19.  Piotr Makowski, head coach of Poland, put Emilia Kajzer and Tamara Kaliszuk in instead of Gabriela Jasinska and Malwina Smarzek and Poland started to play by its normal standards.  The white-and-red team took the lead for the first time at 8-7 and never looked back.  Greece was struggling to stay alive, as Poland did not slow its pace down to comfortably claim the set by 25-16.  Poland caught a good start in the third set and took the lead by 13-10, but Olga Strantzali helped Greece to quickly tie it at 13 all.  Both teams responded well and the score was leveled at 18 all, when, once more, Athina Papafotiou destroyed Poland’s reception with her serves to make it 23-18 and then finish it off at 25-21.  Papafotiou scored another two consecutive points to make it 11-8 to the hosts in the early stages of the fourth set and, although Agnieszka Kakolewska’s ace gave the lead to Poland at 15-14, Greece scored four unanswered points and extended its lead to 18-15.  The visitors reacted immediately and made it 20-19, but then it was time for Greece’s captain Eleni Kiosi to shine.  She scored three points in a row and among them the last to finish it off at 25-22.

Greece’s Eleni Kiosi and Evangelia Chantava and Poland’s substitute Tamara Kaliszuk were responsible for 16 points each to become the best scorers of the match.

Ioannis Kalmazidis, head coach of Greece:  “I am very happy with the result and the performance of my team.  It was a match similar to the second one we played against Germany last week, but this time we managed to control the game and especially in the crucial moments we were concentrated.  Congratulations to my players, but still we have a lot to do…”

Piotr Makowski, head coach of Poland:  “Although we played better today, we made once more a lot of unforced errors.  But this is the price for using young players.  Today we started the match with three players from our junior team and the experience that they are gaining will help them in the future.  Congratulations to the Greek team, it played well today again.  I believe we will perform better next week against Germany.”