POOL A
AZERBAIJAN – ROMANIA 0-3 (14-25, 13-25, 11-25)
Clear and convincing victory of Romania against Azerbaijan. Also in today’s match, the young Romanian talent Alexia Ioana Carutasu was the driving force of the home team with 21 points scored. Romania did a great job with the serve, registering as many as 10 aces.
POOL A
SPAIN – FRANCE 3–1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 25-23)
Second defeat for France in this CEV Volleyball European Golden League. A notable data that stands out in the statistics is the block efficiency of the Spanish team that made 15 winning blocks vs. the 5 recorded by their French rivals. The opposite of Spain Raquel Montoro was the top scorer of the match with 20 points.
POOL B
SLOVAKIA – UKRAINE 2–3 (25-22, 22-25, 25-14, 15-25, 7-15)
Debut in Pool B of the CEV Volleyball European Golden League for Ukraine that defeats Slovakia at the tie break and moves into second position in the standings. Top scorer of the match was Karin Palgutova of Slovakia with 19 points – three more than those registered by Diana Meliushkyna for Ukraine.
POOL C
CZECH REPUBLIC – CROATIA 3–1 (25-13, 20-25, 28-26, 25-22)
The Czech women’s national team played its opening match of the CEV Golden European League 2021 in Prague’s UNYP Arena against Croatia in a repeat of the gold medal match from the 2019 edition. In front of the home spectators the Czech players repeated the same result as in the final two years ago, recording a 3-1 victory over Croatia.
With this victory Czech Republic continued the positive streak from the EuroVolley qualifiers earlier in May where the Czech players won six times in a row. The stats tell us 265 match spikes achieved by both teams throughout the entire match. The Czech Republic dominated the first set. The team led by Daniele Santarelli responded to tie the match, but the hosts eventually emerged victorious in four sets. Gabriela Orvosova (CZE) with 23 points was the most prolific player of this fixture.
“I am happy with the result because Croatia is a very strong team. Yesterday they lost the match so they were very motivated today. We were very aggressive during the first set, the third set we managed to win and then the whole match. The girls stuck together and they showed they are the team. It is why we celebrate the victory.”
Ioannis Athanasopoulos
Head Coach Czech Republic
POOL C
HUNGARY – BELARUS 1-3 (19-25, 24-26, 25-16, 22-25)
The Belarusian team arrived at the CEV Volleyball European Golden League due to air traffic complications later than expected and that is why Belarus played the first match in Prague on Saturday only. Their opponent was Hungary, which had defeated Croatia in a long battle on Friday. Belarus won the first two sets but Hungary did not give up and added some drama to the match. In the end, however, it was Belarus who finished the match with a victory.
“It was our first match and we are happy for the victory, especially after such a long travel to get here. We will now prepare for the next matches and teams.”
Yuliya Miniuk
Middle blocker Belarus
