Arnhem, Netherlands, April 4, 2017. After a rest day on Monday, the 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship – Women resumed with some exciting results as Russia earned their first points by surprising the experts with a straight victory to end the winning streak of Bulgaria. The third match day in Pool I was closed with Italy reaching their third success in a row and a happy Germany, which celebrated their first hurrah to shock host Netherlands.
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Russia vs. Bulgaria
The Russian losing streak is over, after the girls around head coach Alexander Karikov stormed to an impressive performance in the game against Bulgaria to reach an easy 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-20) win. Russia’s block was the dominant force from start to end of the game and delivered 14 crushing stuffs against the Bulgarian offence. Bulgaria’s coach Strahil Balov tried everything at the side line to help his players, but Russian middle blocker duo Viktoriia Pushina (13 points) and Yulia Brovkina (14 points) destroyed all hopes and topped the charts in the opening match of day three. Additionally, the Russians had a much better offence that scored almost half of their attacks (49%), while Bulgaria had to be content with 34%.
The Russian coach Alexander Karikov was happy: “We are glad that we won today. The girls were too nervous in the first two games and needed some time to acclimate. Every game is a final for us now but we want to win them all.’’
Strahil Balov, Bulgaria coach said: “My players were afraid of the height that the Russian girls reached at the net. We didn’t have the courage to attack the ball hard and played too soft for the Russian defence. We have to make it better in the next games if we want to qualify for the semi-finals.’’
Turkey vs. Italy
Italy are unstoppable! The Azzurrine continued their impressive show of strength claiming their third consecutive victory of the 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship – Women by beating Turkey in straight sets 3-0 (25-11, 25-23, 25-22). Thereby, the Italian butterflies flew to their #EuroVolley18W hattrick and continued to dominate the opponents in Pool I. That also means that they fetched nine from nine points so far and still wait for an opponent that can take at least one set from them. The game against Tukey started in a stormy way as Italy took control right from the first whistle. A shocked Turkey didn’t find an effective way to stop the Italian opposite Terry Ruth Enweonwu who top scored with 17 points by the end of the match. The following sets were decided by the nerves of Turkey, where they always matched up with Italy, but never made the final step to gain a set.
Luca Cristofani, Italy coach said: “We had a great service in the first set, thus influencing the match in a strong way. The second and third sets were more balanced and some of my players couldn’t reach their highest level. However, I am happy with the result and hope that we can continue our run. The game against Bulgaria will be very difficult tomorrow.’’
Onur Çarıkçı, Turkey coach reacted strong: “Especially in the first set, we couldn’t play our game due to a strong service of Italy. We made too many and easy mistakes. We woke up in the following sets but didn’t make the right choices during the important points. Our goal is to win the last two matches and I trust my team. We have enough power and believe in our strength.’’
Germany vs. The Netherlands
Germany versus The Netherlands. If there is one matchup in sport that needs no introduction, it’s this classic battle between two neighbours. And Germany is back in business after showing their best #EuroVolleyU18W performance to add the first three points to their tally following a 3-1 (29-27, 25-20, 22-25, 25-16) win. The German butterflies didn’t disappoint the expectations of their coaches who spoke about a progress after the last match that should be the wake-up call for the remaining games in the pool. Germany started strongly with an aggressive serving as well as a good working block-defence system. They outclassed the apparently shocked Dutch girls. Especially the German opposite Emma Cyris had a great day and with 20 points she was the best scorer of the match, followed by the Dutch outside spiker Hester Jasper with 15. A rare fact comes from the fact that even 13 blocks from the Netherlands were not enough to win more than one set.
German assistant coach and former Dutch National Volleyball player Bart-Jan van der Mark said: “This victory is just great. The tactics we developed before the match worked perfectly and the girls executed the game plan with a lot of discipline. We showed a lot of courage and the Netherlands had no answer to stop our opposite. It was an important step to keep our chances alive. We absolutely need this kind of performance against Bulgaria and Russia.’’
German setter Corina Glaab said: “This game was so important for us. We were loud, had a lot of emotions and our performance was much better compared to the previous games. Now we know that we can compete with each team which is a great experience to attack the next games. We finally found our game at this European Championship and look forward to the next matches.’’
Julien Van de Vyver, coach of the hosts reported: “I have to acknowledge that Germany were the better team today. They played with courage and delivered a lot of service pressure. We had troubles in passing and missed some decisiveness in our attacks. It’s going to be hard now to finish in the top four, but we keep on fighting for this goal.”
The Netherlands captain Sarah van Aalen added: “We felt a bit powerless during this match because we never managed to get control. Maybe we were overthinking our actions, because we played with too less belief in our own abilities.”
