Turkish women near qualification at Baku volleyball quarter-finals

BAKU

CİHAN Photo

Turkey moved one step closer to qualifying for the women’s volleyball quarter-finals, while Russia claimed their first win of the Baku 2015 European Games at Crystal Hall 1 on the evening of June 17.  

In the first match of the night, Turkey swept aside Belgium 3-0 to pick up their second win of the tournament.

In a match that lasted just 76 minutes, Turkey looked comfortable against the 2013 European championship bronze medalists, and wing spiker Neriman Özsoy believed this was due to her side’s hard work and sound preparation. 

She said, “It was a difficult game, but we prepared well and our tactics worked well on the court to stop them. They couldn’t play their level because we did a really good job. I’m so happy to be second in the group, but we have to beat Romania.” 

The final game of the day was a clash between the bottom two in pool B: Russia and Croatia. Both were winless going into the meeting and Croatia remained so after losing 3-0.

Daria Isaeva’s huge kill won the first set for Russia.

Croatia hit back in the second and led early on, before going down with Anastasiia Bavykina’s spike and Croatia coach Angelo Vercesi’s dissent caution.

The win was sealed by another kill by Isaeva in the third set, after which Vercesi believed his side “froze” under pressure.

“Because we and Russia hadn’t won, we put pressure on ourselves because we needed to win,” the Brazilian said. 

“We froze on the court and didn’t relax enough. We wanted to win too much; we lost happiness and it was about the psychology of the players today.” 

Earlier in the day, Azerbaijan moved clear at the top of pool A with their third successive win, this time against Italy. Germany put on a great display to ease past the Netherlands, while there were also wins for Poland and Serbia.