The Slovenian women’s volleyball team was even better than Georgia after the victory over Montenegro in the opening match of the European League in Bar. Photo of OZS
The volleyball players against the Georgian women to their second victory
The Slovenian women’s volleyball team defeated Georgia 3:0 (16, 10, 24) in the second match of the European League at the first tournament in Bar, Montenegro. The Slovenian volleyball players achieved their second victory in this competition after beating Montenegro 3:0 in the opening match on Friday.
On Friday, the Slovenian volleyball players successfully started the first challenge of the season and won the opening match in the European league, where they are aiming for the highest places and chasing a place in the elite league of nations for next year. There were some fluctuations in the game against Montenegro, but today in front of the net were even easier opponents on paper.
The Slovenian women, the third seed in the league, advanced to 19th place in the world ranking after the victory over Montenegro, while they are 13th in the European ranking. The Georgian women are only the 87th national team in the world ranking, and 36th in the European ranking. So far, they have met the Georgian women twice in 2022 as part of the qualification for the European Championship and won both matches with 3:0.
Today, the difference in the quality of the national teams was clearly visible in the first two sets. In the third, she is protected Alessandro Orefice made too many mistakes again, but in the end they pulled out a victory from a difficult situation and are leaving the first of the three league tournaments with a 100% profit.
“We started with a good rhythm and energy on the court. Our goal is always the same, to try to show the best game on the court regardless of who is on the other side of the net. Today we adapted to Georgia’s level of play, which was a big mistake for us. Today’s match was a good lesson for us because we felt what it’s like when the other team has the final ball. Despite everything, the team showed good performances throughout the tournament, and we have the tournament in six days. at home,” commented coach Orefice.
Mija Šiftar she added: “We started the match solidly, had some reserves in the first and second sets, but then we gave up in the third. The things that went wrong in the third set will have to be changed in the future so that unwanted results do not occur. This will be key, especially when we play against stronger teams. We are satisfied with the victory, but we still have a few things that need to be improved before the next tournament.”
Most resistance in the third set
Orefice had some rotations in the team today. After the partial result and an 8:3 lead, the Slovenians quickly indicated the direction in which the first set would take place. In the following, they again managed to score six consecutive points, which increased the advantage to +9 (16:7). It was soon in double figures (21:10) and although the Georgian women reduced the gap with a partial score of 5:0 (15:21), they could not get closer than that.
A similar scenario followed in the second set. This time, the Georgians kept in touch for a little longer, until the Slovenians escaped to +5 (11:6) in the middle of the set with five consecutive points. They quickly increased their lead to eight points at 15:7. In this series, the Georgian women managed only ten points in total, while the Slovenian women finished it with as many as eight consecutive points and with an advantage of 15 points.
The Georgian women offered the most resistance in the third set, when they also threatened a complete Slovenian victory. With three consecutive points, they got to +3 (6:3) for the first time, before the Slovenians equalized on the sixth point. The Georgian women continued to lead by one point, two, in the continuation of the set, the two teams exchanged advantages several times, and Georgia again took the lead by three (21:18) in the decisive moments of the set. The Slovenians equalized, but the Georgians prepared the first final ball in the set. They did not take advantage of this, the Slovenian women turned the result in their favor and after a block out of their opponents, they cashed in their first final ball.
Next weekend tournament in Ljubljana
She was the best in the Slovenian selected row with 13 points Mija Šiftar12 of them were delivered by a naturalized Gambian woman Fatoumatta Sillah. She was the most successful among the Georgian women with 13 points Ana Tevdoradze.
Already next weekend, the Slovenian women will play the second of the three tournaments of the European League. Icelanders and Latvians will compete in front of their home audience in Ljubljana.
