Czech Republic earns quarterfinal slot by over powering France – Volleyball
The Czech Republic returned to action on Wednesday, September 28, following their wonderful straight set win over Israel this past Monday. Czech squad travelled to Belgrade, Serbia, and held off France for a 3-1 victory at the quarter-final qualification
playoff. The French failed to cope with the power of Czech team and received a 25-21, 23-25, 25-14, 25-14 defeat. The action-packed thriller continued for 102 minutes at the Hala Pionir sports arena. Czech Republic is now set to take on Germany in the quarterfinal
of the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship on Thursday.
Czech player, Aneta Havlickova, topped all the scorers with match-high 28 points on kills. On the French side, the best player was Captain Anna Rybaczewski. France experienced the better start into the match but Czech Republic stole the show in the end.
Match summary
With a nice delivery of solid serves, France put away the early points on board. Czech ladies, on the other hand, started off at slow pace and trailed behind. French side built 8-5 lead at the first technical timeout and continued with an energetic play.
Helena Havelkova of Czech Republic put up struggle to stop ‘les blues’ and counter attacked. The spirited effort of Czech musketeer minimized the gap of points. France could not hold onto lead anymore and dropped the momentum, but Jiri Siller’s team kept cool
and moved up to 21-17 lead. France failed to return in the game and dropped first set.
Les blues started out with powerful hits in the following set and tried to take revenge. They picked up lead and kept an upper hand on the Czech side. France led the scores up till 24-22 and created the tie by winning second set, 25-23. Christina Bauer closed
second set with impressive block kill.
Third set was all about Czech Republic as they dominated France from start till end. French ladies could only score 14 points and lost the set. Fourth set also came successful for Czech Republic and they grabbed the ticket to quarter final stage of 2011
CEV European Women’s Volleyball Championship
Post-match
Winning captain, Ivana Plchotova, dropped out her thought after the match. She said: “I have to say that this was a very hard and difficult match. The performance of both teams was equal in the first two sets, but we played better in the third and fourth
set.”
The Czech mentor Jiri Siller also had mix feelings of awe and praise for his team. He added: “Congrats to the head coach of France for doing a good work with his team. I was afraid before the match started. France played well tonight, but we outplayed them
with our attacks, which were perfect tonight. I’m happy we won this match.”
French captain Anna Rybaczewski congratulated the Czech team for success in the important match. She was disappointed for not reaching their goal. However, she wished all the best to the Czech team.
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