Bulgaria seals victory in second match of 2012 European Olympic Qualifiers – Volleyball news
Bulgaria and Croatia crossed their ways in the pool-play of the 2012 European Women’s Qualification Tournament on Thursday.
The spectators got to see a great volleyball scrimmage at the Baskent sports hall in Ankara, Turkey as two teams clashed. The score stayed closed throughout the match but Bulgaria emerged successful in the end. The final scores were: 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-20).
The first frame of the match featured a balanced action from both sides. Bulgaria tried to put pressure on the rival side but Croatia appeared ‘not so easy to shake’. Ladies around head coach Damir Jurko gave a good competition to Bulgaria and regularly
traded lead. Croatia earned one-point advantage at the first technical timeout (8-7) but Bulgaria went up after the break. With the help of accurate shots and convincing attack attempts, Bulgaria stretched the gap of points and moved to 16-13. The team of
Marcello Abbondanza continued with success and finally closed first frame at 25-21.
Success in opening set boosted the morale of Bulgarian team, while Croatia seemed a little under-pressure. The scoreboard showed 2-point lead of Bulgaria at the first technical break (8-6). Croatia needed to bring a change in attack strategy in order to
catch up with the opponent. In the hour of need, Antonija Kaleb proved helpful for Croatia. She served with power and raised her team’s score with unstoppable aces. Nonetheless, Bulgaria kept the lead in hand and maintained a fair distance of points from Croatia.
The duo of Diana Nenova and Strashimira Filipova stopped the Croatian attackers and led Bulgaria to second-set win with identical score of 25-21.
In the third set, Bulgaria dominated from start to end. Strashimira Filipova and her teammates increased the pressure on the rival side and hold off Croatia for 25-20 win, which declared Bulgaria as the winner of the match.
Croatian head coach Damir Jurko congratulated the Bulgarian team for their win but also appreciated the effort of his young players. He said, “We played well as a team. We have young players and I wanted to give them a chance to gain some experience. They
did their best.”
However, the captain of Croatian team Biljana Gligorovic seemed unhappy about the result of match. She commented, “We were hoping to win at least our last match in the tournament, but we did not succeed. We were good at the first set, but in the last one,
we completely gave up.”
In the next run, Bulgaria is set to meet Germany in the last match of Pool-Play. Bulgarian mentor Marcello Abbondanza is eying the semi-final spot and in order to do so he has to give a winning plan to his team. Visit again to know about the next matches
of 2012 European Olympic Qualifiers.
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