Greece – Slovenia
Anthi Vasilantonaki contributed 18 spikes, 3 aces and one block for Greece to lead her team with 22 points, while captain Olga Strantzali added another 22, including four aces and two blocks. Slovenia committed 24 errors in reception.
The two teams both started strongly in the opening set, where Slovenia maintained a four-point advantage to 16-12. Greece’s blockers were dominant at the net, while Slovenia’s young talents controlled serves and spikes. After the game resumed, Greece committed two unforced errors to let Slovenia rally to 25-20 with impressive determination.
Slovenia kept momentum in the second set and jumped to an early 8-2 lead, while Greece still struggled with service reception. In addition to that, Slovenia found weak side on Greece’s court and reinforced the attacks on that area, finishing the set by the score of 25-14.
Going down by two sets, Dimitrios Floros’ squad fought bravely to step back. They displayed better serves now, giving Slovenia’s passers a hard time. The excellent serving and two block kills by Ioanna Gkountimenko helped Greece overcome their adversaries and leveled one set back at 25-15.
Slovenia’s reception errors were massive blows to their morale allowing the Greeks to take full control of the match in the fourth set. As in their match with Italy on Monday, Slovenian libero Maja Pahor was the main target of the opponent’s servers.
Greece made excellent defensive stops and served flawlessly against the Slovenians in the fifth set. Anthi Vasilantonaki closed the match in favor of the young Greeks with a blistering winner down the line to make it 15-10.
Greece head coach Dimitrios Floros: “In today’s match we had something we haven’t had during the previous matches: the passion to win. With today’s win we are still in the game for the first eight places.”
Greece captain Olga Strantzali: “I’m very happy after this match as we managed to come back strongly. I hope that tomorrow we will play like we played in today’s last three sets to beat Poland.”
Slovenia head coach Joze Casar: “The first two sets we played very well. We showed no fear; our reception and attacks were excellent. Unfortunately we couldn’t pull through. Tomorrow we need to win the match against Montenegro in order to be among the eight best teams.”
Slovenia captain Eva Mori: “I am really disappointed. I can’t explain why the game changed in the middle of the match. I am so sad that I do not know what else to say.”
Greece vs. Slovenia 3:2 (20-25, 14-25, 25-15, 25-18, 15-10)
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 F.
