16/05/2015 20:04
Poland secure ticket to World Championship following second straight-set win
2015 FIVB U21 Men Volleyball World Championship - European Qualification
Belchatow, Poland, May 16, 2015. The hosts of Poland – who are also the silver medallists from the 2014 U20 European Championship – secured a spot to compete at this year’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship in Mexico following their second consecutive straight win at Energia hall in Belchatow. They did so by sweeping Austria (25-17, 25-11, 25-17) to make sure they will finish first in Pool G regardless of the result from tomorrow’s match with France. In the other game of the day Italy got back on track after yesterday’s defeat to Poland to claim a 3:1 (25-22, 25-19, 20-25, 25-22) win over arch-rivals France and redeem their loss at last year’s European Championship in Brno.
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Italy vs. France 3:1 (25-22, 25-19, 20-25, 25-22)
Italy fought hard to redeem yesterday’s loss to Poland. Although the first two sets (25-22 and 25-19) promised a quick end of the game, the French players, who just like yesterday were slow to start, showed their spirit and were not far from extending the match to five sets, with another inspiring performance by their top scorer Jean Patry (21 points and 17 winning spikes). The key points, however, were scored by the Italians, who won the last set 25-22.
Michele Totire, coach of Italy: “I’m proud of my team. Yesterday’s match was very difficult and today I only asked them for motivation and determination - only that. It was important for us to win today, because at the last European Championship we lost to France once. We needed this victory to motivate us further.”
Giacomo Raffaelli, captain and best scorer of team Italy: “France is a strong team so it’s no wonder that the match was difficult. We are really happy with this win and getting ready to face Austria tomorrow.”
Poland vs. Austria 3:0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-17)
The hosts made very short work of their Austrian rivals, dominating throughout the entire match. Coach Bednaruk made no substitutions in the initial line up which worked like a well-oiled machine. Austria had little to say in the match, falling behind by as many as 14 points in set two (25-11). The final result of 3:0 for Poland means that the hosts have already won the pool regardless of the result from tomorrow’s match against France.
Aleksander Sliwka, team captain of Poland and top scorer on Saturday with 19 points, said: “We knew that if we had won by 3:0, we would have secured a spot in the World Championship so our motivation was double if not triple. We had a really good start – something that was missing in our game against Italy. We realised that the Austrian players had problems in keeping up with our pace, and actually they got weaker with each rally, while we kept focused and felt energised. We did it and here we are in the World Championship!”
Jakub Bednaruk, coach of Poland: “I’m glad. We did our job. We had to win and qualify and so we did – without unnecessary stress and with a blast.”
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