Turkey
The first set saw a very interesting development of the score as the tough-disputed rallies produced many ups and downs for both sides. As the Austrian serving made life difficult for Turkey’s receivers, it was the Turkish blocking that did not make it any easier for the Austrian spikers. While Paul Buchegger was the usual scoring machine for Nina Sawatzki’s team, the Turks took advantage of the abundant mistakes of the opponents to eventually take the edge for the final 27-25 as Melih Siratca spiked off the block to close the set in Turkey’s favor.
Turkey’s successful blocking and Austria’s unforced errors continued to be the main weapons of Ali Kazim Hidayetoglu’s team in the second set. It was even only through the first technical time-out after which the Turks broke away to win the set by a convincing 25-18.
As the plane for Mexico had already started its engines on the runway, but the Austrian boys had not yet checked in, they came out on court very concentrated for the third set. They greatly reduced the number of mistakes and while the Turkish block was still very hard to break through, the score was relatively tight through 14-14. Then Buchegger showed off his talent for serving and after 7 points in a row Austria was well on its way to win this set by 25-21.
Turkey responded by taking a 7-3 lead in the next set, but this did not last long as Austria tied at 8-8. The following moments proceeded under the control of the Austrian boys. As they managed a 3-point lead and maintained it through 19-16, Ali Kazim Hidayetoglu had to sweat it out through the rest of the set under the threat of a tie-breaker. His team evened the score at 20-20 and gradually the set went into overtime. Vahit Emre Savas put the ball on the floor for the final 26-24 and fell into the arms of his coaches.
Ali Kazim Hidayetoglu, head coach of Turkey: “We are very satisfied. This is our first time qualifying for the Youth Boys’ World Championship. We were so excited before the match, and we played well. We are very pleased with the hospitality here.“
Nina Sawatzki, head coach of Austria: “I am very sorry about today’s defeat. We missed two players due to injury. It is bad that we did not succeed to qualify for the World Championship, but we still managed to beat Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Yigit Gulmezoglu, captain of Turkey: “We won and we are happy. I am very satisfied with the tournament as I think we played very well. We succeeded to ensure our place in the World Youth Volleyball Championship. It will be our first time playing in that kind of competition.“
Florian Ertl, captain of Austria: “I am very disappointed with today’s match. I think we still developed well because we passed successfully through the qualifications in Vienna. Now we are among the top eight in Europe. I am very satisfied with the hospitality here. This is our first European Championship and it was our pleasure to be part of it.”
Turkey vs. Austria 3:1 (27-25, 25-18, 21-25, 26-24)
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 M.
Find the full game statiscitcs from this Championship on Statistic.
