Czech Republic – Greece
The two teams played consistently in the opening set where the Czech Republic maintained a narrow advantage to 16-15 and 21-20. At the crucial moments of set one, Michaela Mlejnkova, who scored nine points in the first set, led the Czechs to a hard-earned 1:0 set advantage.
Greece overcame a slowly start in the second set. Some impressive spikes and several block winners from Ioanna Gkountimenko helped the Greeks pull it back to 14-14. On the other side, the Czech Republic committed too many mistakes. A three-point run moved the scoreboard forward to 21-16 for Greece. Captain Olga Strantzali came out with a cracking spike to make it 25-20 and pulled one set back.
Inspired by the win of the third set, the Greece girls continued the momentum to start the third set strongly thanks to a couple of smashes of Anthi Vasilantonaki. Czech head coach Leos Chalupa sent in second setter Marie Kurkova for Katerina Valkova early in the third set but couldn’t stop the Greek winning streak at that moment of the game. However, four set balls were not enough for Greece to close it out. Czech opposite Anna Sucha started her one-woman show with seven consecutive winners to make it 29-27 and to turn the tables in the Czech Republic’s favor.
Even though Greece never gave up in the fourth set, the Czech proved nerves of steel during “money-time”. After 116 minutes of play, Mlejnkova seized the third match ball to bounce Chalupa’s team in heaven.
The Czech Republic head coach Leos Chalupa: “This was a very important match for us because we aim to take part in the second part of the tournament, and of course to stay a couple more days in the very nice town of Bar. We proved strong nerves in the crucial moments of the match, especially at the end of the third and fourth set.”
The Czech Republic captain Pavlina Simanova: “We are very happy. It was a very important match. We were persistent; even in difficult moments we got the strength to change the result and to win the match.”
Greece captain Olga Strantzali: “We experienced many problems during our match today. Our reception was bad, and we could not find appropriate solutions in attack.”
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