Slovakia beats Israel to claim final round berth – Volleyball News
Slovakian men edged out Israel in the last match of league round on Saturday and booked a slot in the final round of the 2012 CEV European Volleyball League.
City of Kosice in Slovakia hosted the match, while the home heroes posted 3-1 (25-23, 25-16, 22-25, and 25-20) victory over visitors.
Israel opened the match in an impressive style and added consecutive points. Powerful serves coupled with unstoppable cross court shots allowed them to build a lead of six points at the first technical timeout in the opening stanza (8-2). Gradually, the
hosts retaliated and struggled to catch up with the opponent. As a result of better attack strategy, Slovakia’s performance improved, but still the team trailed behind. Israel, which led the scores for better time, put up with a dramatic end of opening set.
Slovakia came from behind and finished the first set at 25-23.
Slovaks got their full form back in the second set and quickly jumped to 8-3 lead. In the meantime, Israel got under-pressure and gave out more points. Slovaks took full advantage of the nervousness of rivals and added quick points. Using the competitive
edge of playing at home, the hosts claimed second set at 25-16.
The visitors did not surrender so easily and hit back aggressively in third set. With heavy strike of volleys, Israel managed to secure third set at 25-22. However, Slovakia bounced back in fourth set and posted 25-20 on board to put an end to the tussle.
Eventually, Slovakia proved to be better and settled for 3-1 victory in the match.
Slovak head coach Stefan Chrtiansky was more than happy to win the match. He expressed his emotions in the in the following comments. He said, “I think this was a nice game to watch for the fans and I am happy we played well especially as we had to score
the most important points. Our initial goal in this edition of the European League was to qualify for the final four and I am happy we have achieved this with such a young group that is still lacking experience on international stage. We are looking forward
to Ankara and we’ll be trying to play our best there.”
His Israeli counterpart Zohar Bar-Netzer also had his say about the match. In his opinion, Slovakia put up better show in front of the home audience and the team deserved to win.
The final round of the 2012 CEV Men’s Volleyball European League is set to be kicked off in Ankara, Turkey in coming week. Slovak team is ready to take up the challenge and has determination to grab more success.
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