Croatian girls punch ticket to U16 EuroVolley

Turkey and Croatia booked a ticket to the Final Round of this year’s #EuroVolleyU16W where they join co-hosts Hungary and Slovakia as well as the winners of the 1^st round zonal qualifiers. Turkey completed a clean sweep of their matches in Pool E as they beat Slovenia 3-1 in an all-important match; Croatia, on the other hand, emerged victorious from a dramatic tiebreak match with Romania in a winner-takes-all fixture. Action concludes on Sunday in Pool A, B and D and Sunday’s results will help complete the 12-team field for the continental championship scheduled for mid-July.

Team Croatia celebrate their qualification for this year’s #EuroVolleyU16W

Pool A in Vilvoorde (BEL)

After losing at the tiebreak to the home team on Friday, Belarus regrouped to secure a 3-1 victory (25-10, 20-25, 25-18, 25-12) over their neighbours from Ukraine and stay in contention for a spot in the Final Round. Kseniya Hlinskaya top scored for the Belarusian team with 18 points, well supported by Alena Viarbitskaya and Sviatlana Savitskaya, who registered 15 and 14, respectively. The competition in Vilvoorde ends on Sunday with the matchup between hosts Belgium and Ukraine.

Pool B in Sofia

Bulgaria easily routed Estonia 3-0 (25-10, 25-14, 25-19) as the hosts needed 62 minutes only to claim their first victory in Sofia. The young Lionesses are now the strong favourites to finish first in the pool and secure a spot in the Final Round of #EuroVolleyU16W. The girls coached by Diyan Boyukliev served very well and this was probably their biggest asset in the matchup against Estonia. Even though they had beaten Finland 3-1 on Friday, Estonia could not find a way to stop the Bulgarian attackers. The third set was a bit more competitive, with Estonia claiming a 14-11 lead, before the hosts responded swiftly to close the match 3-0. On Sunday, Bulgaria will play Finland in the last match in the pool after the team of North Macedonia withdrew from the competition a week ago.

“I am very satisfied because we won 3-0 and we did it so quickly. We slowed down a bit in the third set, where Estonia improved their performance. The most important thing is that we came back and won in the end.” said Diyan Boyukliev, the Head coach of Bulgaria.

Raigo Tatrik, coach of Estonia: “If Bulgaria are a level-1 team, we are level-2. They were simply too strong for us. We fought as much as we could and I am satisfied, because yesterday we won against Finland.”

Pool C in Zadar (CRO)

In a pool featuring two teams only following the withdrawal of Germany, Croatia beat Romania 3-2 (18-25, 14-25, 25-23, 27-25, 15-12) in truly dramatic fashion after coming back from two sets down. With this result, Croatia have secured their participation in the final stage of the U16 continental championship. Maša Mlinar scored the most points for Croatia (17) as Antonia Dora Gheti registered as many as 20 for Romania in their losing effort.

Pool D in Walbrzych (POL)

Poland and the Netherlands keep an immaculate record after completion of the second day of competition in Pool D and on Sunday, they will go for a ‘final showdown’ to determine which side finishes first and qualifies directly for the Final Round of the U16 European Championship. The hosts from Poland dropped one set in their matchup with France, while the young Oranjes were merciless and needed less than an hour to rout Lithuania in three sets.

Pool E in Maribor (SLO)

After Austria and Portugal opened the programme of the last competition day in Maribor with Austria claiming a 3-2 victory to finish third in the pool, Turkey and Slovenia locked horns to define which team would end top of the charts and qualify for this year’s #EuroVolleyU16W. The hosts from Slovenia started strong before Turkey edged ahead to claim a 25-23 win at the end of a close first set. Slovenia served very well to win the second set easily (25-16) before Turkey responded to sweep the third and fourth ones (25-12, 25-21) to celebrate a 3-1 victory and a ticket to the Final Round.