Slovakia concludes second round of 2012 CEV Women’s Junior Volleyball Championship as pool leader
Women’s junior national team of Slovakia joined the Final Round qualifiers of the 2012 CEV Women’s Junior Volleyball European Championship by defeating Austria on Sunday night.
Slovakia played under the tag of host team and used the competitive edge to down visiting Austrian squad. The match continued for almost two hours and produced the following result 25-20, 21-25, 25-14, 25-16.
The local ladies clawed their way to the top slot in Pool D with a total of 12 points. In terms of win/loss record, Slovakia tied with Romania as both teams dropped only one match apiece. However, Slovak ladies came on top with better set and point ratio.
Slovak side added a couple of points in the first set when Austria was yet to be on board. Austrian counter-attacks soon changed the scenario and hosts trailed behind. However, the home audience encouraged the local team with slogans of victory and Slovakia
retook the lead.
The top striker of Austria Srna Markovic produced mighty shots, which created much trouble for Slovak defensive expert. Slovakian libero Monika Dolezajova put up a valiant effort to tackle the powerful cross court shots of Markovic.
Austria led the scores at first technical timeout (8-6). The hosts regrouped after the first break and formed a new strategy, which helped them to attain one-point lead at the next technical timeout (16-15). Afterwards, Slovakia kept the lead in hand and
closed opening set at 25-20.
The second set of the match was quite symmetrical to the previous set. Both teams used their attack and defence tactics, and traded lead at regular intervals. The visiting team attacked with great strength, which forced the home squad to ask for a timeout
in early few minutes. The timeout, therefore, did not prove helpful as Austria went up. With better combination of players, Austria managed to bring the game to an even point with set-2 win (25-21).
In the tie-breaker third set, Slovakia did well and clinched success. They finished the set with 11 points (25-14) and went on front with 2-1 lead. Eventually, Slovakia achieved match points in fourth set and declared victory over Austria.
“I am happy. The match was extremely tough because both teams were under the pressure. I believed in my girls, I told to my players that as long as we play our own game, we will be successful. I think we used our experience from previous difficult international
games. It is great that this group has qualified for the final round of the European Championship. I want to thank the spectators as they helped us a lot tonight,” commented the Slovak mentor Eva Kosekova after the match.
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