Serbia secures bronze medal at the 2011 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship
Serbian Girls’ National U-19 Volleyball Team defeated Poland in the bronze-medal match on Sunday, August 21. The crucial third-position match was played at the Baskent Hall in Ankara, Turkey, where Serbs proved to be better and claimed victory. They posted
25-21, 25-13, and 25-18 in three sets and settled for bronze-ware. Serbia controlled the game through good defence. Solid blocking was surely the key of success for Serbia. In this regard, Katarina Canak and Natasa Cikiriz supported Serbia in a great way.
Just two years back, Serbia finished in the second position. This time around, they targeted the top slot but managed to secure the bronze only. However, this is equally respected as it is the second best finish of Serbian Team. Serbian captain Bianka Busa
was the top scorer of the match as she totalled 12 points. Likewise, best striker of Polish team Iga Chojnacka clipped 9 points.
Opening phase of the game was pretty much tight. Both sides attempted frequent attacks and tried to take lead in the game. Poland was quick to lead the scores with 8-7 at the first technical timeout. The game progressed in the similar fashion but Poland
suffered the set-back due to a reception error. Serbia got the edge and pushed the opponents behind. Serbs built three-point lead over Poles at the second technical timeout. Serbian side was highlighted by Mina Popovic while Julia Twardowska did a good job
for Poland. First set was full of tension but Serbia managed to win by posted 25-21 on board.
Serbs went straight into action wit 4-0 lead in the following set. The remained on the same course and widened the gap of points. Cikiriz directed the ball in gaps and raised Serbia’s core. Poland was constantly down with errors and their feeble attack attempts
didn’t do any harm to Serbia. As a result, Serbs got stronger in terms of scores and put an end to second set at 25-13. It was disappointingly embarrassing for Poland to score only 13 points in second set.
However, the third set was truly an intense fight between two teams. Score tied at various points and the game experience many ups and downs. Poland struggled to create a little spark but it was too late as Serbs refused all their efforts. Serbian declared
match victory after winning the third set at 25-18.
Post-match
Serbian Captain Busa Bianca seemed fully delighted about success against Poland. She expressed her emotions in the following words: “It was hard to find the power to play after yesterdays match. We were very sad and negative because of the match yesterday
but we managed to stay positive during the game. We are 3rd and got the bronze medal. Bronze is like gold for us.”
Iga Chojnacka, the captain of losing side accepted the fact her team played really bad. She was saddened and couldn’t even talk properly. She wished that they should have played better but actually it didn’t happen.
The Polish Coach Pec Andrzej also had the similar thought about his team’s performance. He stated that Poland played under the standards and didn’t demonstrate the up to mark performance. On the ending note of his comments, he congratulated Serbia for making
it to the third spot.
On the other hand, Serbian Coach Milan Grsic was happy about brilliant act of his team. Speaking of their success in the match, he stated: “We played better than Poland. We were more relaxed compared to them. Poland did play quite bad today. I believe we
were both affected from yesterday’s games.”
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