Great win for Netherlands
In case of Serbia’s win Slovenia will be out of competition! Game’s top scorer was tonights fantastic Overbeeke who got 20 points and led his team to a huge victory. On the other side, Cebulj was the only one at the high level with 16.
Slovenia had edged Serbia in their first game and playing well in Herning. Against the Netherlands they won the first point of the first set and after 2-2 they went on to lead for the rest of the set, taking a commanding 8-3 at the first technical time-out. Slovenia in charge found holes in the Dutch defence and the Dutch blockers couldn’t hold off the effective Slovenian spikes. Slovenian captain, wing-spiker Tine Urnaut scored several sneaky points by tipping the ball over the Dutch defence. A serving error by the Dutch ended up giving Slovenia the first set 25-19.
Slovenia started the second set determined and fought for every ball but the Netherlands came back for a two point lead at the first technical time-out. Urnaut still played clever at the net and kept Slovenia in the set, but the tall Dutch started to get their spikes in order and sent one missile after the other Slovenia’s way to level the match at 25-19 with a superior kill block by middle-blocker Wytze Kooistra who stands 209 cm tall.
Third set: after a messy start with errors from both sides the Netherlands started to pull ahead and after the second technical time-out, they took five straight points with a kill block and a 21-16 lead. The Netherlands would go on to lead 2-1 after the Slovenians almost came back, as the Oranjes seized the third set 25-22.
Again the Slovenians had a good start to a set and were ahead 8-5 after some solid spiking. A couple of technical errors got Netherlands into this set again and head coach Luka Slabe called for a Slovenian time-out. The Netherlands got back into the game with consistent offensive work and a great spike finished it off for the Oranjes who eventually got the three points they wanted from this game.
Soon more about this match, until then, read our coverage page at European Championship 2013 M.
Also check out photos at Galleries.
