Serbia and Poland make it to quarterfinals at Girls' U18 World Champs
News from the FIVB
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, August 1, 2013. Serbia and Poland carry Europe’s hopes at the 2013 FIVB Girls’ U18 Volleyball World Championship following the round of 16 that was completed on Thursday. Serbia edged Greece 3:1 while 2013 European champions Poland got past Puerto Rico with the same score to make it to the 1/4 finals coming up on Friday and play there Peru and USA respectively. In the other 1/4 final matches Japan plays Brazil while China takes on the Dominican Republic.
Serbia showed their consistency beating Greece 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 20-25, and 25-16) in 102 minutes of thrilling Volleyball action at Chatchai Hall. Serbia continued their successful run of victories to qualify to the quarterfinal and meet Peru in a great fight on Friday. Greece will play Slovenia in the relegation matches for positions 9-16. Despite their victory, the Serbians lost the record of being the only team who didn't drop a set when they lost the third in their match with Greece. Again Serbia’s opposite player Tijana Boskovic headed the match scorers with 23 points followed by Sara Lozo with 14. Anthi Vasilantonaki and Olga Strantzali paced Greece with 12 apiece.
World No. 6 Poland’s performance in blocking (14) and serving (8 aces) made the difference and helped the 2013 European champions clinch a 3:1 victory (25-21, 26-24, 22-25, and 27-25) victory against Puerto Rico. Poland’s opposite Malwina Smarzek sent her sharp spikes from position 2 making 16 points for her team as the best scorer of the game followed by the left-handed spiker Magdalena Damaske who scored 13. On the other hand Puerto Rico’s Genesis Miranda played her best and contributed 26 points for her team and one of the best performances since the start of the tournament.
World No.3 Italy left Liptapanlop Hall in great despair after suffering a bitter 2:3 (25-18, 14-25, 23-25, 25-22, and 7-15) loss to world No.2 and three-time world champions Brazil. Italy came much stronger this time after finishing a dismal eleventh place in the previous edition in Turkey two years ago, while powerhouses Brazil also have their sights firmly set on winning their fourth title on the same place where they had claimed their third crown in 2009. The tie-breaker turned out to be a one-sided affair from the beginning when Brazil carried out explosive attacks to lead 8:1. Italy clawed their ways back to narrow the gap 4:8 but from then they became more prone with unforced spiking mistakes. Brazil stormed to win the set 15-7 taking a place in the quarterfinals.
Gallant Dominican Republic completely smashed Turkey’s sweet dreams of retaining their world title to pull off a magnificent come-from-behind 3-1 (16-25, 30-28, 25-18, and 25-17) victory over the European giants at the Liptapanlop Hall. In this do-or-die battle, Elizabeth Martinez led the Dominican Republic with 29 points including 22 kills from 55 attempts, while Pelin Aroguz scored a match-high 23 points for Turkey.
Fast-improving Peru, backed by their noisy drum-beating, horns-blowing supporters, became an impossible nut to crack for Slovenia as the world No.10 knocked the lower-ranked counterparts out in straight sets (25-19, 25-14, and 25-21) at the Liptapanlop Hall. Both teams did not compete in the previous episode in Turkey two years ago and just tried their best to advance the deepest in this World Championship. Peru, which performed superbly to stun world No.3 Italy in their group stage, remained in brilliant form in their game against the gold medalists from the European Youth Olympic Festival.
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