ECH M: Great fight! Belgium beat Slovenia to claim 2nd place in Pool C

It seemed that Slovenia should easily win the first set as they had a three-point lead for much of the first half 11-8, 13-10. The players coached by Andrea Giani even had 16-14 at the second TTO. Belgians took over lead righ after that and didn’t let it go until the end. They had 24-21, but lost four points in a row: a service error, Rousseaux’s failure to simply throw the ball over the net, Urnaut’s counter attack and Rousseaux’s spike into the net – 25-24.  Then, Belgium scored a 3-0 run with Van Walle’s and Deroo’s kills and Kozamernik’s long touch.

The second set brought a lot less uncertainty. Actually, there was none. Slovenia did the same like in the first set, but this time gained a larger gap and kept it all the way, 5-2, 9-5, 12-7, 17-11…  Belgium have stabilized their play in the moment when it was too late. Gašparini’s series of strong serves on 22-14 finished off „Red Dragons“ 25-14.

Slovenian team had another perfect start, this time in Set 3, 7-5, 11-9, but Belgium took over in the best possible moment 22-21 and needed three set balls to take Set 3. Deroo was a key player in that effort 27-25.

Set 4 was totally different than previous ones. This time, Belgium took an early lead, 3-0, 5-1 and had a solid lead at the second TTO 16-14. Slovenia made a 3-0 run, led with 17-16 and had a set ball at 24-22 with Urnaut’s tipover. Clever block by Verhees gave Belgium an equalizer 24-24. Afterwards, both teams struggled to serve. Gašparini sent kill out of bounds, while Deroo smashed first ball and Belgium won 28-26.

See standings here.

 

Final Round / Pool C

 

To see standings, results, stats, videos, etc, visit our EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2015 M page.

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