Poland tops Argentina in 2011 FIVB Grand Prix Opener – Volleyball News
Poland kicked off the 2011 FIVB Grand Prix in a great way and faced off Argentina in the opening match on Friday, August 5. With the emotional support of local fans, the Polish team performed exquisitely well and grabbed their first win of the tournament.
The Luczniczka sports hall in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz hosted the action-packed match, where the home team scored 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, and 25-22) victory.
Katarzyna Konieczna of Poland was the real heroin of the match. She supported her team with a crucial 15 points. Lucia Fresco of Argentina contributed 9 points but it was a shame that none of the Argentinean players could go into double figures.
The match was opened with huge victory slogans of Polish fans. The entire arena looked red as most of the fans were clad in team-shirts. Team’s moral was ever high and they made a good opening by impressive spikes of Katarzyna Konieczna. Meanwhile, Argentinean
Lucia Fresco responded with return shots and put her team in lead at the first technical timeout. Poland came up with a different plan and used a strong offensive attack. They managed to steal some points from Argentina and gained the control of operations.
Argentinean coach tried different substitutions but couldn’t save the opening set. Poland claimed first-set win with 5 points.
Second set was a close fight as both sides kept moving ahead at almost same pace. Poles incorporated the heavy strike of volleys and pushed the opponents behind at 14-12. Afterwards, Argentinean side dropped a few tricky serves of Polish players and further
suffered the set-back. Polish players brought more ferocity in attack and didn’t rest until they closed second set with the final score of 25-17.
Argentina attacked aggressively in third set but Poland defended nicely. Hosts picked up the lead and added quick points. Argentina’s setter Antonela Cuaratola created trouble for Polish team with her great hand-work and bring to game to an even point at
13-all. However, the local fans backed up the Polish team and enticed them to crush the opponents. Argentina offered great resistance but couldn’t hold the Poles back. Poland finished third set with 3-point lead and declared match victory.
The native coach of Polish team, Alojzy ?widerek commented that it was hard competition for both teams. However, he was satisfied with his team’s great performance. He further added: “It was clear, that my players are nervous. That’s why they couldn’t maintain
their advantage and let the opponents come close or even tie. But I hope that the fans in Bydgoszcz enjoyed this match.”
Milena Radecka, the captain of Poland was simply overjoyed with first the winning start in the competition. She disclosed her thoughts after the match: “At the beginning we’ve committed some errors because we knew about the expectations of the home crowd.
We didn’t want to disappoint. In the next games we want to show, that we can play better.”
Argentinan mentor, Horacio Bastit congratulated Poland for victory and opined that it was obviously difficult for his team to perform in front of such big Polish crowd. He said that some of the players couldn’t sustain the pressure and that’s what led them
to loss of their first match. Nonetheless, the coach seemed satisfied about the overall performance of his team.
Polish Team claimed sixth position while playing at the 2010 FIVB Grand Prix. This year, they have changed almost the entire team line. They are competing with nine new players this year. Let’s see if the formula works and Poland goes up on the ranking chart.
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