11/04/2013 16:00
Young Polish "starlet" Karolina Pisla reflects on European Championship gold
2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship - Girls
Dabrowa Gornicza, Poland, April 11, 2013. This past Sunday Poland’s girls claimed gold at the Youth European Championship in Bar, Montenegro, thereby also qualifying for the 2013 FIVB Girls’ U19 World Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima (Thailand). Wing-spiker Karolina Pisla, who plays for Tauron MKS DABROWA GORNICZA, was also part of the group that seized Poland’s second gold in the competition after 1999.
A professional career in the sport is certainly the common dream of many girls who are not simply attracted by the possibility to earn – one day – good money, but also by the opportunity to devote their time to the thing they love the most, i.e. Volleyball. “Volleyball is my life. It is a wonderful and great sport, full of emotions and where you can never predict the way a game may end up. That’s also why so many people love it” Pisla says. This definitely applies also to the final of the Championship that Poland eventually claimed after coming back from two sets down and surviving five match balls for their opponents from Italy.
Along the way to their gold medal the girls mentored by Grzegorz Kosatka played five tie-breaks. This stands as a clear evidence for Poland’s psychological strength and, at the same time, as a guarantee for a bright future in the sport. “We never give up and we always stick together. On the day of the final match we had a short excursion, got to see the oldest olive tree in Europe and visited some other nice areas there in Bar. I still can’t realize that we have won the European Championship; I will probably need some more days for that and I do wish this is only the starting point of a very successful career in the sport” Pisla continues.
The toughest moment in the tournament came as Poland lost 1:3 to Greece in the last day of the prelims, but still could make the semis. “We felt really down after that defeat but we also did take our lesson and adjusted our game accordingly. I think this portrays what you experience in everyday life, where you always go through ups and downs” she concludes.
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