Arnhem, Netherlands, April 6, 2017. The last day of the preliminary round at the 2017 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship – Women began with the Serbian butterflies completing a miracle comeback with their third win in a row to book the second spot in the semis from Pool II, while Poland missed the chance to make it among the top four teams in Arnhem after losing in three sets to Belarus. The day finished with Slovenia edging Romania to secure their spot in the classification matches 5-8.
You can follow the Championship also on Facebook and Twitter, with the official hashtag to be used for all of your posts and tweets being #EuroVolleyU18W!
The semis will be held on Saturday with Italy versus Serbia (15:45 CEST) and a Belarusian team that will play against Russia later in the evening at 18:15 CEST. All matches will be streamed live and for free on LAOLA1.TV as well as on Facebook @CEVEuroVolley.
Greece vs. Serbia
Serbia ended their preliminary round adventure with the third win in a row to defeat the winless team from Greece 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-14). The start of the match was close with Serbia forcing the advantage during the right time and with the help of strong outside spiker Jovana Mirosavljevic, who was again the top scorer for her team with 13 points in the end. The Greek moves and substitutions did not produce the desired effect and couldn’t take at least one set to have a reconciling leave from the #EuroVolleyU18W. Whenever Greece took the lead, Serbia were immediately able to turn the score around with great serves and a strong offence, so they had no problem to reach their next victory in the competition.
Serbia coach Jovo Cakovic celebrated the semi-final qualification with his girls: “We are so happy, that is unbelievable! We lost the first two games, but my girls never lost their confidence and made a little miracle come true. I am very proud of my team, they made it great after the rest day. The game against Italy on Saturday will be very hard, they are probably the best team here. We will be an unpleasant opponent for them and believe in our chances.’’
Belarus vs. Poland
The #EuroVolleyU18W match between Belarus and Poland, who had to win to secure the second semi-final spot, was nothing but a demonstration of power from the Belarusian girls. They easily jumped to their fifth victory in a row celebrating a crushing 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-14) result in Pool II. Good block action (8 blocks) as well as a solid offence (41%) were enough to beat Poland, who made too many mistakes in attack (32%). Poland’s outside spiker Julia Szczurowska led the charts with 14 points, as the Belarusian opposite Alina Egorowa (12 points) was the best scorer for her team.
Natallia Melianiuk, Belarus coach said: “We made a very good preliminary round, I am very satisifed with our result. The game against Russia will be difficult, but we will fight for a win.”
Romania vs. Slovenia
Slovenia produced a shocker and eliminated Romania from the European Championship finishing the last match of the day in straight sets 26-24, 25-17, 25-17. Although the Romanian team needed just one set to qualify for the classification matches, their reception (23%) was simply too bad to create a forceful attack. Slovenia worked themselves up into a frenzy after the first set and stormed to a deserved win. Romania outside spiker Adelina Budai-Ungureanu was the most successful attacker and scored 12 times, followed by Nika Bavdaz and Eva Pogacar of Slovenia, both having 11 points to their name.
Sebastjan Miksa, assistant coach of Slovenia: “The girls were unbelievable. It was our best performance at the European Championship and it was just in time. I am very proud, they wanted to show that they can play and win against Romania. We knew that we needed a 3-0 win and it was great to see how they managed to cope with the pressure.’’
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