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Romania vs Turkey 0:3 (16-25, 22-25, 19-25)

Proving that the early bird gets the worm, Turkey beat Romania in straight sets in the matinal match of the day, a clash dominated from beginning to end by the Turkish side. Romania dreamed of acquiring its first victory in the competition, but met an efficient Turkish squad that offered a skillful performance to increase its tally of wins in the tournament. 

The Turkish team used Polen Uslupehlivan’s attacks to halt Romania’s wishes of victory in the match from the onset of the encounter. The expertise presented by the Turkish ladies limited the Romanian side’s attempts of taking the lead of the game and the Turkish domination was confirmed in a convincing first set (25-16).

The young players directed by Argentinean coach Guillermo Gallardo aspired at finding any glimpse of opportunity to unsettle their rivals, but Turkey soon established a pace that Romania was unable to follow. Despite a late reaction and four saved set balls by the Romanian ladies, a back court spike by Meliha Ismailoglu sealed the final 25-22 and provisional 2:0.

Just as it occurred in the previous days of the tournament, the fans attending the match at the Crystal Hall arena in Baku showed their support for the Turkish side and the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League gold medallists responded by ultimately shattering Romania’s options of a comeback. The spikes by Polen Uslupehlivan and a final attack by Meliha Ismailoglu closed the set 25-19 and completed the Turkish demonstration in a conclusive three-set victory. 



“Since we have run out of chances [in the tournament], we are focusing now on giving opportunities to our younger players. On one hand, I am happy because we accomplished certain goals that we aimed at, but on the other hand, I am logically a little bit disappointed because we were hoping for more in this tournament,” said the coach of Romania, Guillermo Gallardo.

“It was an important match for us, because we needed the victory in order to keep our chances alive in the competition. We won, we are happy and I guess that we will play against Azerbaijan for the leadership of the pool. We made substitutions in this match, because all the players have to play. We are happy,” declared Turkish coach Ferhat Akbas. 

Poland vs Italy 3:0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-23) 

Poland beat Italy in a three-setter showdown and signed their third victory in the tournament, thus confirming their condition of main contenders of Pool A. The Polish ladies presented a powerful demonstration and dominated a hopeful Italian team that tried to resist to its rivals’ superiority throughout the match. 

Aware of the importance of the victory in order to maintain the top positions of the pool, Poland soon certified their intentions to take the quickest route to triumph. The offensive trio formed by Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza, Katarzyna Zaroslinska and Sylwia Pycia provided the lead in the first set for the Polish ladies (8:6, 16:11, 21:12) and propitiated growing advantages for the squad directed by Jacek Nawrocki. The difference remained and ultimately resulted in the convincing 25-17 that closed the period. 

Italy tried to react through Sara Loda's spikes and Valeria Caracuta’s direction, but an early lead by the Polish team halted the Italian wishes of recovery. In addition to this, the growing anxiety among the young Azzurre, together with Raffaella Calloni’s injury ended up mining the Italian options in the set. Poland only had to maintain their efficiency to put the final 25-18 in the scoreboard. 

A starting initiative by the Italian team in the third set was rapidly brushed off by Poland, as Jacek Nawrocki's ladies continued establishing their effective balance of blocks and attacks. Katarzyna Zaroslinska’s command in spiking contributed to the confirmation of the Polish preeminence in the set, despite the Italian attempts to hold on to the game. Poland gave no options to their rivals in the period and achieved the final 25-23.  



“I am happy that the result was 3:0. We needed this result for the team and I am glad that we could make it. I enjoyed this match. As for the future in the competition, I have learned in my career that we must go step by step, you don’t jump ahead. We have to think about our match against Belgium, which is a good team, and then we will think about the quarterfinals. We take small steps, we don’t go for the long jump,” said Polish player Katarzyna Ewa Skowronska-Dolata. 

”I am very disappointed. We could have played much better in the first and the second sets, but we made too many mistakes. We had a small reaction in the third set, but then it was too late. Now we have the maximum of pressure for the last match against Romania, which we have to win to qualify for the quarterfinals,” said the coach of Italy Fabio Poli.

Azerbaijan vs Belgium 3:2 (25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-6)

The home heroines of Azerbaijan are still undefeated, unstoppable and on a one way track to the quarterfinals. Tonight Azerbaijan had to fight their hardest yet to overcome Belgium in the tiebreak 3:2.

Azerbaijan started the match in the best possible way making it 4:0 before Belgium saw what was coming. Odina Bayramova was a living wall at the net and the 25-year old outside spiker chipped in with 2 solid block points besides her 4 deadly spike points in the set. Azerbaijan’s setter Oksana Kurt kept a good variety in her setting always putting Bayramova and the rest of the Azerbaijani offence in favorable positions to secure the set win 25-21.

Belgium had a lot more to chip in with in the second set. Some cleaver substitutions by coach Gert Vande Broek brought the Yellow Tigers of Belgium one step ahead of Azerbaijan throughout the set. Though Belgium was in the lead, Azerbaijan kept very close like a shadow. But like the shadow of a spiking Volleyball player is on the ground, Belgium managed to finish the set on top, 25-22.

The Azerbaijani flags were waiving faithful and the applauds were rhythmic and optimistic in an almost completely full Crystal Hall in Baku that was on its boiling point in the third set. The blue-shirted home heroines found back the same rhythm as in the first set and stormed toward the set win in front 20:12 before reality hit the Belgian site. Lead on by Sarah Cools, the Yellow Tigers ate the Azerbaijani lead bit by bit and reduced the gap to only three points, 18:21, before outside spiker Jana Matiasovska-Aghayeva shattered the Belgian dream of a comeback with some mean spikes tiring up the set 25-20.

It looked like Crystal Hall should experience another tiebreak today as Belgium took a 17:13 lead in the fourth set. But Azerbaijan kept their head cool and after four rallies the hosts were breathing Belgium in the neck 17:18. Polina Rahimova spiked Azerbaijan on winning course with their first lead at 20:19, but the set shifted again as Belgium scored five subsequent points and wrapped it up at 25-21.

Tiebreak time in Crystal Hall and Polina Rahimova opened the ball with one of her 25 points in tonight’s match. The atmosphere was more tense than ever before in Crystal Hall, when a block touch challenge called by Belgium decreased the 8:4 Azerbaijani lead to 7:5. That was the last point for Belgium in a long time as Azerbaijan scored the next four. Belgium’s mentor Gert Vande Broek called a timeout with this side lagging behind 5:10, but it was middle blocker Freya Aelbrecht who tried to shout the fighting spirit into her teammates. Though, it was too late for Belgium. The entire Crystal Hall were on their feet, standing and cheering as Azerbaijan won 15-6.



“We are a bit physically and mentally tired and not at our best today. We owe a lot to the amazing fans today, and all the other days, who have been here any hour of the day cheering for us. The win tonight is as much theirs as it is ours. Now I am looking forward to playing Turkey. We want to finish first in the Pool,” said Azerbaijan’s Odina Bayramova, who scored 24 points in the match.

“I think we showed more today than we have done in the previous games. We were able to play at eye level with Azerbaijan, and we had a real chance of winning tonight. Unfortunately we let them get ahead too easy and too early in the tiebreak, and then it is hard to get back. The crowd was making a lot of noise, but just creates a great atmosphere and everybody plays better. We probably need a win against Poland in the last match to proceed to the next round, and we will be ready for that,” said Valerie Courtois, libero of Belgium.