Spain outlasts Slovakia to finish as top team in Pool A – Volleyball News
Spain defeated hosts Slovakia in the last match of 2012 CEV Men’s European League Preliminaries on Sunday, in front of a crowd of 1500 people at the Steel Arena in KOSICE, Slovakia.
In the four-set affair, Spaniards captured three frames and settled for the triumph. The final set scores were 3:1 (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 28-26). Spain finished as the top team in Pool A and successfully booked a slot in the final round of the European League,
which will take place in Turkey on the weekend.
Spain’s Iban PEREZ exhibited spectacular show of volleyball and added match-high 25 points, which included 22 winning spikes. For hosts, Milan BENCZ put up valiant effort and notched up team-high 23 points.
The home team had the support of local fans, but the visiting Spaniards did not take any influence and used an early onslaught of solid spikes. They went up on the scoreboard and earned 3-point advantage at the first technical timeout. Furthermore, Team
Spain maintained its dominance and did not allow Slovakia to come up. Opening frame covered its length in 24 minutes and finally ended in Spain’s favour.
Spain followed the same strategy in the next set and took a great start. Slovakia became irresistible and could not get the form to hit back. Nonetheless, Slovaks gradually found their feet and managed to shorten the gap of points after the second technical
timeout. They came really close to Spain, but still could not avoid the loss in second set with narrow gap of two points.
Slovakia lost two sets in row, but kept looking for the ways to return in the game. In third set, Slovakia’s Milan Hrinak helped the team with good defence, whereas team skipper Frantisek Ogurcak attempted convincing attacks. As a result, the hosts managed
to break the ice in third set.
Home audience encouraged the local boys to keep the momentum going but Spaniards crushed their hopes in the fourth set. Spain sent 28-26 on board and announced match victory.
The winning head coach of Spain Fernando Munoz shared his views after the match. He stated, “I think we played good all the way through, better than we had done in the previous matches here in Kosice. We went up in set 3 and 4 but Slovakia gradually came
back and the ending of the last set was very tense and emotional.”
He further added, “We are very happy to finish first in the group as we had many tough matches and tie-breaks. We enjoyed playing here as the arena is great and the conditions offered by the Slovak Volleyball Federation are always excellent. We’ll go back
to Spain and start preparing for the final four.”
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