28/08/2015 19:00
Greece open final weekend of pool play with straight-set victory over Israel
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Women
Ra’anana, Israel, August 28, 2015. The women’s national team of Greece claimed on Friday the first of two away matches with Israel on schedule for the last round of preliminary action in the 2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Women. Waiting for the remake to follow on Saturday, Greece’s women could celebrate their 3:0 win (25-20, 25-20, 25-20) and also their qualification to the semis. Israel, on the other hand, could not get back on track after losing twice to Hungary last weekend in Érd and still have to win on Saturday in order to stay in contention for a spot among the top four of the competition.
The start of the match set the tone for what was going to follow. Greece claimed the first points before Israel’s stormed back to draw level at 6 helped by Sofia Starikov and their captain Moran Zur. Greece got up by two points at the first technical time-out, stretched their lead to 12:9 first and then to 20:16, with their combination of solid defence and good performance at the net paving the way to the final 25-20.
Israel claimed a narrow margin (3:2) in the early stages of the second set and a few more points scored by Starikov and star middle blocker Galit Devash helped the home side set the pace (6:4) going into the first mandatory break. Zur called for the first technical time-out with Israel leading by 8:7, and after the score remained close up to 11 all, Israel broke away to lead by three at 16:13. However, Greece responded by stepping up their efforts, especially in defence, and blocking the Israeli spikers at the net to flip the charts around, move to the front at 20:17 and finish it off yet again at 25-20.
Israel set the tempo of the game in set 3 (8:6) and this trend continued up to 13:10 before Greece got back on track and rushed to tie the score at 14 all. As Greece got up by two at 18:16, Israel’s coach Arie Selinger stopped the game but Greece continued to perform well, killing spike after spike and bringing the set and the match to an end at 25-20.
Greece’s coach Ioannis Kalmazidis commented: “We have a great team full of energy; we are of course happy with the win but especially with the way we played this afternoon. I have seen some great defence today and we regularly stopped the Israeli attackers at the net as well, so we got the right edge to win this game. We are currently building a team and you can see how my players progress from match to match in this European League.”
Israel’s mentor Arie Selinger said: “My team did not play good today and we paid the price for our bad performance. As for Greece, they have a very good team.”
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