Bulgaria edges Switzerland in three sets – 2012 CEV Women’s European Volleyball League
With the help of Dobriana’s twelve winning spikes and Hristina’s six blocks, Bulgarian women’s national volleyball team stamped a wonderful 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-11) victory over Switzerland on Friday.
Bulgaria hosted the match, while Swiss ladies made an appearance as visitors. The Palace of Culture and Sports in Bulgaria’s Coastal City Varna provided the backdrop for the match, which continued for almost 70 minutes.
Bulgaria claimed first victory in Pool B of the 2012 CEV Women’s European Volleyball League. The competitive advantage of familiar court allowed the hosts to launch full authority on Swiss team.
The home team started out really well in the opening set. They scored consecutive points and jumped to an early lead of 7-1. The Swiss failed to offer any resistance to the hosts and gave out too many points. Bulgarian top guns took full advantage of the
nervousness of opponents and improved to 16-8 at the next break. Dobriana led Bulgaria on the net and threw speed bombs in Switzerland’s half. The opening set of the match covered its length in 26 minutes and Bulgaria ended up with better score, 25-17.
Second set of the match was slightly different from the previous as Switzerland managed to take lead at 2-1. However, it was the first and only time when Switzerland was ahead of Bulgaria. Afterwards, Bulgaria took over the control and finished second set
in the similar fashion. Bulgaria sent 25-18 on board and took another 26 minutes to improve to 2-0.
Third set was again dominated by Bulgaria. The Swiss players seemed visibly exhausted and disgruntled, which further affected their performance. Bulgaria comfortably captured third set (25-11) and announced match victory.
Bulgaria Head Coach Marcello Abbondanza could not be more satisfied with his team’s feat. He expressed his emotions in the following manner, “I am very happy with this result because it was our first match in the competition and we were playing in front
of our fans. The players stayed always very concentrated and coped very well with all situations.”
On the other hand, the coach of Swiss team Svetlana Ilic also congratulated the winning Bulgarian team. He acknowledged that Bulgaria put up a really nice show of volleyball. Despite the loss in the match, he appreciated the solid defence of his players.
He added, “I can be satisfied with our performance in defence because we could catch many balls and the girls always played with great spirits and highly motivated. We still have a long way to go before being able to compete at the level displayed by the
other teams.”
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