Polish before the match against Canada, the volleyball players had everything in their hands – if they won in the other two matches of the second phase M¦along with Canadians and Germans, they would advance to the quarter-finals of the tournament, achieving an excellent result. The first step was to be taken in the game against Canada, which was a nice surprise from the World Cup. After three sets, it looked like it would be very difficult. The Canadians beat us in the second and third games, at 19 and 16. However, the white and red team managed to get back on their feet. The tie-break decided everything. In it, the Polish women showed the biggest asset of the first set, namely the block. They scored up to six points in the decisive game in this element! and crushed the Canadians until 15:5. After a while, they heard a very loud, probably the loudest in this tournament: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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A good start, then an incomprehensible collapse
The start of the match was difficult for the hosts. The Polish women lost 7:9. After a while, Zuzanna Górecka entered service. And the white and red concert has begun. When the ŁKS Commercecon Łódź player left the service court, the Poles were leading 12:9. They played very well with the block. In this set, they scored up to six points (rivals only 2). Everything looked as good as the last game, a 3-0 win over the United States.
In the second set, the Poles had a big problem with the efficiency of the attack, in which they had only 23%! Thanks to this, the rivals quickly developed a four-point advantage. The whites and reds played without risk, they attacked cautiously. Oliwia Różański didn’t finish any of the ten attacks in that game and was substituted late in the set. Magdalena Stysiak has only finished three out of twelve fights. Among the rivals, the duo took the bulk of the game: Kiera Van Ryk and Alexa Gray (respectively 7 and 6 points).
In the third part, the Poles failed to get up and found themselves on the court. The situation on the ground was dramatic. It was a totally incomprehensible collapse. When Lavarini took second time, it was 11:21 a.m. A moment earlier, after a broken serve from Korneluk, the Italian coach sat helplessly on the bench for a moment. He spread his hands, said something to himself, then grabbed the stats and shook his head in disbelief. In this match, white and red played poorly in all elements of volleyball. The biggest problem was still finishing the attack – Stysiak 4/11, Górecka 0/4, Różański 0/2. The latter after three sets had a shameful efficiency of 4/27, or -3.7%.
We also have to give credit to the Canadians – they played brilliantly in blocking and defence! They placed well in the sixth zone and picked up a lot of attacks. Thanks to this, they had many opportunities for counterattacks, in which they felt very good.
“I took the volleyball players to the locker room.” The rebirth of Polish women and an astonishing end
– I think I would take the volleyball players with me and go to the locker room for three minutes. To shake them up – said Zbigniew Bartman in the TVP Sport studio. Lavarini didn’t, but his team showed character. After two bad sets, he was able to get up. With the score at 8:8, Górecka went for the serve, and left them with the Poles leading 13:8! However, they couldn’t maintain their advantage and the ending was exciting. At 23:23, Korneluk was blocked, but the referee prematurely whistled that the action was over, even though she was in the game. In the replay, the white and red team took it badly again, but Stysiak finished the attack from a difficult position. On the first counter-ball of the set, the counter-center finished the attack but also touched the net. The Canadians didn’t play so well – in this set they made up to 10 mistakes. And then there was the phenomenal tie-break we talked about at the start.
The Poles had up to 20 blocks throughout the match (the rivals had only six).
– If the volleyball players’ 3:0 with the Americans must be the founding myth of this team, which was the 2:0 with Germany for the Nawałki players, then today’s game with Canada is like that 2:2 in Scotland, when Robert Lewandowski in the last second he kicked the ball into the goal – wrote Sport.pl journalist Łukasz Jachimiak on Twitter.
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Poland – Canada 3:2 (25:18, 19:25, 16:25, 25:23, 15:5)
- Poland: Wołosz 1, Stysiak 25, Witkowska 15, Korneluk 12, Różański 7, Górecka 8, Stenzel (libero) and Szlagowska 2, Wenerska, Gałkowska.
- Canada: King 4, Maglio 9, Cross 3, Gray 20, Van Ryk 21, Howe 14, Palermo (libero) and Savard.
