Poland
The second match on schedule was more important as the home heroines of Belarus needed to score a win to maintain some chances to advance to the third and last stage of the qualification process.
This was ultimately not the case as Belarus lost to Germany 1:3 (19-25, 24-26, 26-24, and 20-25).
The home girls had a disastrous start and quickly lost the opening set to Germany whose setter Magdalena Gryka was simply outstanding. Belarus moved up 16:10 in set 2 but a serving turn of Germany’s captain turned the tables around and the guests finished it with a block.
The third set was a real fight with Germany’s head coach Han Abbing being forced to use his best attacker, Carina Aulenbrock, but in vain as the hosts could seal it at 26-24.
The game, however, was no longer in the hands of the local heroines in set 4 as their poor reception minimized their chances to score with consistency and Germany could go for the final 3:1. In the last match of the tournament France easily disposed of Lithuania in straight sets (25-10, 25-11, and 25-18) to finish third in the standings and advance – together with Germany – to the third round qualifiers (venues to be determined) scheduled for mid July.
