Russia – Romania
Slovenia opened the program of the tournament playing Poland and started out strong in this game by taking the first set with the score of 25-22. This was a real boost to the confidence of the young players from Slovenia who stepped up the quality of their game and easily claimed the second set with a massive 25-13. However, Poland was not ready to give in that quickly and responded well by seizing the third set at 25-22. Still Slovenia got back on track in set 4 and by displaying good blocks eventually cruised to the final 25-23 and to a well-deserved 3:1 win. Iza Mlakar top scored for the winning side with 22 points.
In the other match of the day the hosts of Russia – who finished fourth at last year’s European Championship in Ankara – started out very well going up 2:0 in their clash with Romania (25-14, 25-8). However, they relaxed a little too early and were punished by their opponents who called for a fourth set (16-25). That was a close run but Russia remained focused in the deciding final rush thereby bringing it home at 25-22 with Irina Voronkova registering 20 points in the end.
To read more news from this competition click on 2013 FIVB Volleyball Women’s U20 World Championship – European Qualification.
