Turkey fails to grab home win – 2011 CEV European Volleyball League (Women)
The final match of the 2011 CEV Women’s Volleyball League was played on Saturday, July 16 in Istanbul Turkey. The two top teams for the tournament, Serbia and Turkey, clawed their way to the most influential final match of the tournament. The Serbian team
was the two-time winner of the European Title in previous years and was vying for a third title. On the other hand, host Turkey, was quite optimistic of their chances because they wanted to use the competitive edge of playing under familiar conditions to beat
Serbia. However, despite the emotional support of fans, the Turkish team could not make it to the top position. Serbian ladies crushed their dream of holding the title-trophy by posting a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, and 25-23) victory in the final contest.
Match Overview
Serbian team opened the match and used Maja Ognjenovic for the serve attack. She supplied plenty of power to the ball and created problems for the opposite side. Neriman Ozsoy of Turkey responded in the same tone and served with precision and accuracy. After
an exchange of a few rallies, Serbia was up at 8-5. Serbian players Jovana Brakocevic and spiker Natasha Krsmanovic stepped up and added more points to the tally and Serbia claimed the opening set of the match.
Team Turkey threw commanding serves and disturbed the balance of opposite side with powerful aces in the second set. The fans’ roared as Turkey gained a better position as they were two-point ahead of the Serbian team at the first technical timeout. It seemed
as if the Turkish team had got their form back. However, the resilient Serbian squad proved to be a tough nut to crack. They resisted in full force and minimised the gap of points at the second technical break. They continued with their effort and Serbia managed
to steal points from Turkey and closed second set with 25-21.
The young Turkish players were quite down after losing the first two sets in a row. They played under pressure and could not overcome the power of the Serb ladies. Turkey dropped the third set with a close margin of two points and settled for a silver-medal.
On the other hand, Serbia walked away with the gold, which was their third title win in the history CEV European Volleyball League.
Quotes and Comments
The Head Coach of Turkey, Marco Aurelio Motta, regretted the loss of important match. He stated that Serbia put up a nice show of volleyball and proved to be the better team in many ways. Motta praised their good defence and blocks, which halted Turkey’s
attempts to score points. Likewise, the Turkish team captain, Neslihan Darnel, was sorry about the defeat in the final match. She hoped that the young crop of Turkish players will bring out better result in the future.
Serbian Head Coach, Zoran Terzic, was satisfied with his team’s performance. He said, “We are very glad that we won a third title. The European League has become stronger and stronger in the last years, and every season is getting more and more difficult,
as we have to compete against very good teams. So we are very pleased that we could win today”.
Furthermore, he added that final match was tougher than their previous matches. The psychological pressure of 5,000 spectators trying to hinder their performance but his side sustained the pressure and outdid their opponents.
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