Baku, Azerbaijan, October 2, 2017. After ten days packed with as many as 36 matches across three cities – Baku, Ganja/Göygöl and Tbilisi, the historic 2017 edition of the women’s EuroVolley co-hosted by Azerbaijan and Georgia ended on Sunday with Serbia standing on top of the podium. The only 20-year-old Tijana Bošković received the award for the Most Valuable Player of the tournament – an impressive accomplishment for someone who is still that young but who has already drawn everyone’s attention for her terrific physical and technical skills.

These are the most interesting facts and numbers resulting from the last competition day and from the tournament as a whole:

•    Serbia beat The Netherlands 3-1 in the final on Sunday to claim their second European Championship title, after standing on top of the podium in 2011 following a 3-2 win over Germany.
•    Serbia are now on five European Championship medals (G2-S1-B2). They lost the 2007 final to Italy and claimed a third-place finish in 1951 (as Yugoslavia) and 2015.
•    Serbia’s Tijana Bošković scored a team-high 130 points at the 2017 European Championship. She averaged 7.22 points per set, more than any other player in the competition did.

•    Losing finalists the Netherlands failed to grab their second European title (gold in 1995) and are now on six medals in the competition (G1-S4-B1).
•    The Netherlands have now lost the European Championship final in three of the last five editions (2009, 2015 and 2017).
•    Lonneke Slöetjes (113) and Anne Buijs (110) of the Netherlands finished in third and fourth place respectively on the 2017 European Championship top scorers’ list.
•    Turkey beat Azerbaijan 3-1 in the third-place play-off match on Sunday to claim their third medal in history of the European Championship, after a silver medal in 2003 and a bronze in 2011.
•    Turkey’s Neriman Özsoy (101) was one of only six players to reach the 100-point mark at the 2017 European Championship.
•    Hosts Azerbaijan equalled their best finish in the competition, as they also claimed a fourth-place finish on their debut in 2005.
•    Polina Rahimova (Azerbaijan) scored 151 points at the 2017 women’s EuroVolley, at least 21 more than any other player did.



Voices from the gold and silver medal winners…

Tijana Bošković, player of Serbia and MVP: “We are European champions, this feeling is incredible!  We played really well, like one, as a team from the beginning.  We lost only two sets from the start of the European Championship.  We worked five months for this and you can see the result.”

Brankica Mihajlović, player of Serbia and one of the 2017 women’s EuroVolley Dream Team members: “We are really pleased. I think this European Championship has been good for us as we lost only two sets.  We played a very good team in the final who pushed us, especially in the third set, but fortunately, in the fourth we found a way to finish it.  I hope we can continue in this way because next year we have the World Championship.”

Robin de Kruijf, middle blocker of the Netherlands: “I have a little bit of mixed feelings, on one hand I am sad but on the other hand I am pretty calm because today I think that Serbia deserved it more than we do. We did not score the points when we had to score them and a team like Serbia will score the next ball that they get. So in the end I am happy with a silver medal.”

Anne Buijs, player of the Netherlands and another member of the Dream Team: “It is disappointing for us. For me personally it is my third silver medal and I really felt like this one was going to be different. We were completely ready but had many problems stopping Bošković and Mihajlović and we have to accept that the opponent was better today. I am proud that we have silver with a new coach, but disappointed at the same time.”

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