Nordhausen, Germany, July 13, 2014.  Having already qualified for the final of the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Women, Germany stayed in rhythm with another shutout against Greece.  In the last match of Pool B, played in Nordhausen, the Giovanni Guidetti’s selection finished in style with a 3:0 (25:21, 25:20, 25:17) victory over the southern European side, taking its record up to 26 points from 9 wins and 3 losses.  On the other hand, Greece ended the season bottom of the pool with 10 points from 3 victories and 9 defeats.

Again the home heroines controlled the match in all aspects of the game and forced Greece to many unforced errors.  Germany started out with a fast gameplay and great block action in the first set.  Opposite Carina Aulenbrock blocked the Greek attacks twice for a 5-2 lead.  Ioannis Kalmazidis reacted with an early time-out to give his players a new tactical strategy.  It did not work.  Germany’s middle blocker Jennifer Pettke, who scored five points in the first set, extended it to 14-7, but deficient German defense and five consecutive points for Greece changed things to 14-12.  Giovanni Guidetti switched in setter Maren Apitz and outside hitter Lena Stigrot and had a large share of the next German run towards the final 25-21.  The big difference in the first set was due to only 17% successful attacks and eight unforced errors by Greece.  The crowd saw nearly the same beginning in the second set.  The German team ran to a 5-1 lead.  Especially Jennifer Pettke was in a good mode and stopped a lot of attacks at the net.  Against this, Greece offered big problems in reception (17%) and attack (33%).  Simple German mistakes offered Greece the equalizer and the turnaround to 16-14 in the middle of the set.  But an off-time for the Greeks prevented them for holding on to their lead.  Germany came back and closed the second set at 25-20.  In the third set, Germany rushed to an 8-5 lead.  It was the same game course as on Friday.  Greece tried everything, but its performance was not good enough to become a dangerous opponent for Germany.  An unforced error in Greece’s attack made it 25-17 and 3:0 to Germany.

Jennifer Pettke was the best scorer of the match with 15 points for Germany.  Teammate Jana-Franziska Poll added another 10.  Eleni Kiosi topped Greece’s scorers’ chart with 11.

Giovanni Guidetti, head coach of Germany:  “It was a bad game for us, because of the mistakes we made.  The girls were tired from the long trips recently.  As a result of this, we lost our concentration.  Our fans supported us very well; I think this was one of the key points in this match.”

Ioannis Kalmazidis head coach of Greece:  “Germany was the better team, but today we played better than on Friday.  We saw that when the score was tied, small details determined the outcome.  We have to improve physically and tactically to be closer to the teams we played in this European League, which was a good opportunity for us this year.  We gained a lot of experience.  I prefer to play difficult matches which offer a good preparation for the future.”

Lena Moellers, captain of Germany:  “This was the last test before the final against Turkey.  It was nice that we made it in straight sets again.  However, we made many mistakes which we have to eliminate in the next games.”