Arnhem, Netherlands, April 2, 2017. The spectacular 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship – Women delivered another day of exciting actions in Arnhem as Bulgaria upset Turkey to fetch their second consecutive victory. Italy and The Netherlands also added an important win that brought them closer to the next round, while Germany and Russia are still searching for their first points. 

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Bulgaria vs. Turkey

The #EuroVolleyU18W experienced the first miracle, when Bulgaria defeated the pre-favourite team from Turkey in five dramatic sets 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 14-25, 15-25, 23-21). The Bulgarian girls initially matched the Turkish favourites thanks to outside spiker Aleksandra Milanova who was the best scorer in the end with 25 points, before their opponents' efforts were rewarded with the equaliser after four sets. Finally, the decider closed an emotional game, where the Bulgarians fended 8 (!) match balls to turn the score around at the right time.

Bulgarian coach Strahil Balov was proud of his team: “I enjoy this moment. We made a big, big, big miracle here; this is just unbelievable for our team. Turkey is one of the strongest teams and I had to wait such a long time for this moment to come. Actually, there are no words to describe my feelings. I am just proud of my team.” 

His outnumbered counterpart Onur Çarıkçı added: "We couldn’t start the match as planned and the Bulgarian team made a great job with their service. My team finally woke up after the second set and delivered a great comeback. It is hard that we missed the point we needed in the fifth set.”

The Netherlands vs. Russia

The Netherlands finally “arrived” at their European Championship. The Dutch girls of coach Julien Van de Vyver overpowered Russia in straights sets 25-17, 25-21, 25-20 and turned their first victory into a great party with 700 raucous fans. Although Russia tried to work on their chances, the Dutch defence and an unsteady Russian attack (36%) kept the home advantage in every set. A firing attack with outside spiker Hester Jasper (12 points) and opposite Lisa Nobel (11 points), who even were up to the task against the Russian block, closed an entertaining game after 80 minutes that started the orange party in Arnhem.

A happy Dutch captain Sarah van Aalen said: “Yesterday we were quite disappointed after we lost the opening match against Bulgaria, especially since we missed some good chances. But we managed to forget the loss and focus on the next match against Russia. Today we played with so much energy, and the crowd helped us enormously. We played smart and our middle blockers did great. I think now we’re really in the flow we need.”

Coach Julien Van de Vyver commented: “There are two ways to climb the Himalaya, via the hard side and the easy side of the mountain. Playing a tournament like this is the same, we were prepared for this scenario. Today our players showed great mentality, they played beautiful clean Volleyball. Right now we are enjoying this victory, from tomorrow on we need to focus on the next match against Germany.” 

Germany vs. Italy  

Italy beat Germany 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-21) on Sunday evening, taking an important step on the road to the semi-finals. The Italian attackers were unstoppable from the beginning of the match and stormed over a helpless German team that had no chance, especially in the first two sets. Their great fighting spirit wasn’t enough to win at least one set as they even failed to achieve this feat by dissipating a six-point lead in the last set. Top scorer of the game was the Italian butterfly Elena Pietrini who made 16 points. Italy now lead Pool I with two convincing victories that brought them maximum six points.

Italy coach Luca Cristofani was not totally satisfied despite the clear win: “We played a strange game tonight, with some up and downs but the victory is very important for uns. We know that the European championship is very difficult, long and with a lot of teams that can change the situation in every moment. The players from the bench made a good game today.”

German assistant coach Christian Lotsch was not unhappy: “Playing a European Championship means also that you have to improve from game to game. That is our goal and that is what we want to do. We already made the first step against Italy and worked well on our block-defence system. All these aspects combined with our emotions will take us to the next level.”

Middle blocker Camilla Weitzel said: “It was a good game, but we had too many problems with our reception at the beginning. We had a good atmosphere on the court and improved our block-defence system. Of course, the Italian girls were better and deserved the win. We still have a chance to win the next match if we can deliver this kind of performance again.”