Slovakia beats Belgium 3-1 to get seventh place in FIVB Volleyball Women´s Junior World Championship
Sunday, July 31st, saw the Slovakian team compete with the Belgium side for the seventh slot in the FIVB Volleyball Women´s Junior World Championship standing. The match between the two sides took place in Lima, Peru and the Eduardo Dibos Gymnasium
was the backdrop as the two teams competed for four sets at the end of which the Slovakians were celebrating a 3-1 win.
The first set of the match was intense and no one was sure which side would win it. After putting up an impressive competition in the opening set of the game, the Belgians lost their steam in the second set and the Slovakians were able to grab the win with
ease. However, Belgium rebounded in the third set that was fierce and ended up with a Belgian win. But the Slovakians did not let their opponents take the match to a fifth set by taking it on the fourth one and securing the match at the following final set
scores: 25-23, 25-12, 29-31 and 25-20.
The Belgian coach, Julien Van De Vyver, made the following comments after his team had lost the match: “I am very proud of my team. Yesterday we had a hard match and I knew that it would be difficult to recover. Losing today is not important for me because
we are in a good position in developing our senior national team.”
On the other hand, the Slovakian coach Marek Rojko expressed himself in the following words: “Congratulations to Belgium for its level. This was also my last match with the national delegations after two seasons. We had problems with the attack during the
entire tournament. Fortunately, today was different and we are proud of it.”
The first set of the game saw the Belgian team come out strong as they were able to take the lead at 8-6. By the time the second technical time out was reached, the Slovakian team was able to close in the gap at 16-10. After the two sides came back onto
the courts, the Slovakians played as a rejuvenated team and were able to take the set to a tie at 22-22. After that point, it was not a tough job for the Slovakians to bag the opening set at 25-23.
Winning the first set of the game set the tone for the second one as the Slovakians got the lead at 8-3. The Belgian side tried hard to stop the Slovakians from moving towards another win but the Slovakians seemed unstoppable and were able to secure another
win at 25-12.
The third set progressed in a tug of war between the two sides and the score was still tied at 15-15. However, Belgium took the lead at 20-16 and eventually took the set at 31-29. However, that was the only moment of glory for the Belgians as the fourth
set was secured by the Slovakians at 25-20.
The player that was able to contribute the most on the Slovakian team was Nikola Radosova, who tallied 20 points while the Belgian Lise Van Hecke registered 14 points.
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