Poland holds off Serbia for 3-2 victory in the last Pool-Play – Volleyball news
Women’s national volleyball team of Poland finished the pool-play of Olympic Qualifiers with a perfect 3-0 record.
Poles completed the winning streak of three matches by defeating Serbia in the last encounter on Friday.
Poland stamped 3-2 (29-27, 25-21, 21-25, 19-25, 15-13) win over Serbia and clawed its way to the final round of the tournament. Next up, Poland will meet Germany in the first semi-final match of 2012 CEV Women’s European Olympic Qualification Tournament.
The semi-finals will be on Saturday, while the final showdown of the tournament will be staged on Sunday, May 6. The final round matches will be hosted Basket sports hall in Turkish Capital Ankara.
Match started out on very high note. Both teams came up with convincing attacks and remained hand-in-hand on the scoreboard. After an exchange of long rallies, Poland managed to take one-point lead at 8-7. In response to Poland’s better status, Serbian Sanja
Starovic attacked with great ferocity and put her team in lead at 16-13. Both teams continued with fine display of volleyball, while Poland closed the opening set 29-27.
The second stanza was symmetrical to previous frame. This time Serbia led the scores at first technical timeout (8-7). Gradually, Poland got better and flipped the scores from 7-8 to 16-12. After the second technical timeout, Poland never trailed behind
and added another win to its tally.
The loss of two sets in row forced the Serbian coach to change the strategy. He regrouped the players in third set and used the substitute players. The formula worked and Serbian ladies managed to overcome the resilient rival. Poland dropped third set with
four-point deficit, 21-25.
Third-set win restored the confidence of Serbian players and they continued with success in the next frame as well. Serbia made a great comeback and created the dead-lock of 2-2 by winning fourth set. Nonetheless, Poland crushed their dream of victory by
capturing final set of the match. Poland posted 15-13 to close third set and announced match victory.
Poland’s mentor Swiderek was delighted about match victory but he opined that his team could have played even better.
Polish skipper Skorupa commented, “It seemed to be a crisis day for us. We wanted to get the three points. Now we are waiting for the last match between Russia and the Netherlands.”
Her Serbian counterpart Ognjenovic said, “We could have been happier today because we played better than we did in the previous two matches. But, it was not enough to win and now we are going to work more to be successful in Japan.”
The coach of her team Zoran Terzic agreed and urged the team to get prepared for the next opportunity in Japan.
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