CEV Announces EuroVolley's MVP and Dream Team

2017 CEV EUROPEAN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

With EuroVolley’s end, it’s awards time. While the majority of these are not surprising, the absence of a few players, like Polina Rahimova, is certainly disappointing.

MVP: Tijana Boskovic (SRB)

Tijana Boskovic put on a scoring clinic in EuroVolley. She average a whopping 7.22 points per set, on 55% hitting performance and 40% efficiency, by far the tournament’s most regular outside hitter. She also was the tournament’s second best server at 0.61 aces per set. She even had a decent showing at the defensive end, blocking 0.56 attacks per set. Boskovic is slowly turning herself into one of the game’s best all around players, all at 20 years old. Surely, she has an even brighter future ahead, and hopefully, many more titles to still come.

Courtesy of CEV

Outside hitter: Lonneke Sloetjes (NED)

Sloetjes scored 4.34 per set for the tournament. While that may not sound like much for an elite outside hitter, she got the nod for the dream team due to her regularity and coming up big when it mattered most: she scored 20 points against Italy in the quarterfinals in only 3 sets and 25 against Azerbaijan in semifinals. She is an experienced player that rarely faults her team when they most need her. She was also the tournament’s third highest scorer with 113 points.

Courtesy of CEV

Opposite hitters: Anne Buijs (NED) and Brankica Mihajlovic (SRB)

Buijs scored 4.23 points per set on 44.4% hitting performance and 33% efficiency, including 33 points on her squad’s semifinals match up against Azerbaijan. She finished as the competition’s fourth highest scorer with 110 points.

Courtesy of CEV

Mihajlovic sparked up Serbia’s offense with 3.94 points per set on a 42.9% hitting performance and 29% efficiency.

Courtesy of CEV

Middle Blockers: Eda Dundar (TUR) and Stefana Veljkovic (SRB)

Dundar led the tournament with 26 total blocks (0,96 blocks per set) and was second in blocking efficiency at 34.88%. She also scored in double figures in all but one of turkey’s 7 matches, at 51.5% hitting performance at 35% efficiency. She was also helped from the service line, scoring a respectable 0.37 aces per set.

Courtesy of CEV

If Dundar helped Turkey in a more traditional defensive middle blocker role, Serbia’s Veljkovic helped her squad with offensive firepower. She scored on double figures in all but one of Serbia’s 6 matches, leading the competition in hitting performance (70.6%) and efficiency (62%) on the way.

Courtesy of CEV

Setter: Laura Dijkema (NED)

Dijkema led all setters in the tournament with 47.02% efficiency in her squad’s silver medal campaign.

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Libero: Valeriya Mammadova (AZE)

Unfortenely, good liberos like Mammadova are avoided by opponents’ serving lines, which means they don’t even qualify to be included in receiving statistics. In addition, CEV doesn’t keep digging statistics, so we are not able to give our readers cold numbers on Mammadova’s performance. However, Azerbaijan’s overachieving fourth place in the competition tells us all we need to know about its players’ performance, Mammadova included.

Courtesy of CEV

Notable Exception: Polina Rahimova (AZE) – Outside Hitter

It’s understandable that winning should be rewarded over losing. Thus, of course Serbia’s Boskovic deserve the MVP award. However, since CEV awarded a spot on the dream team to another outside hitter in Sloetjs, it should have at least considered Rahimova for the spot, as Azerbaijan’s 4th finish place is still decent enough for recognition. Her performance in the competition was simply epic, leading the tournament with a 25.2 points per game average, including a 38 point eruption against Netherlands in the semifinals, while scoring 0.64 aces per set, which also led the competition. She also did good defensively, netting a respectable 0.55 stuffs per set. At the end, she finished the competition as its leading scorer with 151 points.

Courtesy of CEV

CEV Announces EuroVolley’s MVP and Dream Team