Spain maintains dominance in Pool A of Men’s European League – Volleyball news
Spain continued with success in the second leg of the 2012 CEV Men’s European Volleyball League, which covered its length on June 3.
Spaniards played three matches in front of the home audience in Teruel and delighted the fans with back-to-back wins. In the last match on Sunday, Spain overpowered Slovakia in a five-set thriller.
The visiting team put up an incredible effort to overcome the hosts but dropped the decision with a narrow margin. The final set scores of the match were 3-2 (24-26, 23-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-11).
Slovakia had a good start in the match and captured the first two sets. However, they failed to carry the momentum and lost next three sets in a row. Spanish team was greatly applauded by everyone for a major comeback in the game.
Spain’s victory was mainly credited to Iben Perez, who contributed match-high 24 points. His score included 22 winning spikes and two serve aces. For Slovakia, Milan Bencz 20 points in the loss.
In the first set, Spain jumped to an early 2-1 lead but Slovaks promptly responded and flipped the scorecard. Spain regained the lead at 6-5 but again fell down. Slovak hitter showed power and added a flurry of points. They led the score at FTT and firmly
held the lead at the next technical timeout. Spain, therefore, managed to chase the score near the set points but Slovakia proved to better and closed first set at 26-24.
Spain hit back aggressively in the following and led the score for better time. However, Slovakia waited for the right moment and snatched lead from Spain. In the latter half of second set, Slovaks enjoyed better status and extended their lead to 2-0 by
posting 25-23.
The loss of two sets in row put the home team in the rage-mode. They showed no mercy to the visitors in third set and devastated their defence line. Spain claimed third set at 25-17 and also followed it up with fourth-set win, 25-23.
In the decisive final set, Spain controlled the operations and did not allow Slovakia to come up. The hosts posted 15-11 and settled for 3-2 victory in the match.
Slovakian head coach Stefan Chrtiansky commented after the match, “We cannot say that we are happy, because we lost 2-3, but we need to be satisfied, as I know what kind of team we have now and I know the team we played against today. After the first two
sets, I was sure that Spain would come back, especially playing here; ultimately, they were more experienced than us,” added the head coach.
Spanish mentor, Fernando Muñoz said, “We knew that Slovakia is a team that plays great and we only did our best after the third set.”
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