Czech Republic claims third consecutive win at the European Champions League – Volleyball news
Men’s national volleyball team of Czech Republic continued with its winning ways in the Pool B of 2012 CEV Champions League and added third victory to its count this past Sunday.
Czech Republic was challenged by the Dutch counterparts on day-3 of the tournament. Team from the Netherlands failed to overcome the skill-full rivals and received 1-3 (25-17, 12-25, 19-25, 18-25) defeat in the match. Romanian City Piatra Neamt hosted all
the action and created an excellent field of play.
Victory improved the winning record of Czech Republic to 3-0 and allowed the team to take up the top slot in standings of Pool B.
Karel Linz and David KONECNY of Czech Republic proved the steel of their forearms and contributed 18 points apiece. They shared the top-scorer’s position in the match. Linz also emerged as the top-attacker of the match with 13 winning spikes. Overall, Czech
Republic came on top with strong offence.
Netherland’s Jeroen RAUWERDINK registered team-high 12 points, while his teammate Thomas KOELEWIJN added 10 points in the loss.
In the first set of the match, Dutch ‘army’ came strong on Czech competitors. They served with great accuracy and directed their shots in the gaps. As a result of more convincing play, they earned a four-point lead at the first technical timeout (8-4). Czech
Republic trailed behind but kept looking for ways to come up. However, Dutch played so well that the Czechs had no chance to take lead. Netherlands kept the game in hand up till the set points and closed the opening frame at 25-17. The duo of Rauwerdink and
Jelte Maan was behind the success of Dutch squad in the first set.
After dropping the opening set, Czech Republic started to feel alive in the following frame. Czech attackers Linz and Konecny came into action and successfully managed to break the rhythm of pumped-up Dutch players. They formed a good combination and developed
a great chemistry between them. In the meanwhile, the setter of Czech Republic Ondrej Boula did amazingly well and created enough opportunities for hitters to produce point-scoring shots. He also helped the team with his tricky bump passes. Netherlands had
a poor start and lagged behind throughout the second set. The Dutch could only grab 12 points and suffered the loss with a big margin (12-25).
The Republican squad recovered from the shock of early loss and got its full form back in third set. Top-guns of Czech Republic enjoyed a great tone and put pressure on the rival side with variety of attacks. They rallied from 8-6 to 16-12 and claimed third
set at 25-19.
Fourth set also ended in Czech Republic, while the final score was 25-18. After a bad start in the match, Czech Republic made a great comeback and claimed 3-1 victory.
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