Czech Republic holds off Israel for 3-0 victory – Volleyball news
Czech Republic women’s national volleyball team defeated Israeli squad in straight sets on Friday.
It was the opening match of the second leg of 2012 CEV Women’s European Volleyball League, which took place at Topsport Centre in Almere, the Netherlands. The final set scores were 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-9), while Czech ladies celebrated victory. It took
them 68 minutes to send Team Israel to fourth consecutive loss in the tournament. However, Czech Republic improved to 4-0 in Pool C.
Success of Czech Republic was mainly credited to Andrea KOSSANYIOVA, who charted math-high 13 points. Tatiana Artmenko was the top-scorer on Israel’s side. She contributed 12 points, in the failing effort.
The opening set of the match featured a balanced action from both sides. Israel showed consistency in attack and managed to lead the scores up till 4-3. The Czech ladies took some time to settle down in their positions and then started the hard-hitting.
With a couple of nice shots, they promptly went up on the scoreboard and pushed the rivals behind. Israel kept looking for ways to trade the lead and eventually got a few kills to improve to 15-14.
In the meantime, the mentor of Czech Republic asked for a timeout. As the team returned after the break, the players had a new ambition. They retook the lead but Israel did not slow down and hit from different angles. The situation remained undecided until
Czech squad gave the final shot and closed opening stanza at 25-22.
The raged-up Israeli players struggled to cover up the deficit in the second set. They scored the early points while Republicans were yet to be board. Gradually, the Czech side took a modest lead and took the charge of the game. Carlo Parisi, the Italian
head coach of Czech team, backed up his team all the time. With the help of better attack and defence strategy, the ‘blue shirts’ seized second-set at 25-21.
Israel was deep down in trouble after the loss of two sets in a row. On the other hand, Czech team enjoyed a rhythm and tone. With two sets in hand, they successfully dragged the opponent under pressure and built a five-point lead at FTT (8-3) in third set.
Furthermore, Czech ladies continued with success and stretched the gap to nine points (12:3). Israeli coach Selinger opted for better substitutions but nothing could stop the pumped-up Czechs. They rallied to 16-4 and made a next jump to 19-8. Israel ended
the third set with nine points, which Czech Republic achieved the match points (25-9).
Tags: