Greece Upsets Croatia to Stay Undefeated in Pool A

FIVB WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – EUROPEAN QUALIFICATION WOMEN

• May 24- June 4, 2017
• Pool A – Osijek, Croatia
• Schedule/Results

Pool A Standings Through 2 Days

After the 2nd day of competition in Pool A, the Russian women are the only team that has picked up the maximum 6 points thanks to a 3-0 handling of Georgia on Thursday that saw them given up only 27 points to the nation that will co-host this summer’s European Championships.

The Russians will next face a surprising Greek team on Friday in what will likely decide the group champions in the 3rd of 5 rounds of play in the pool. Greece, who are ranked only 64th in the FIVB World Rankings, earned their spot with a surprising 3-0 domination of Croatia (world ranked #18) on Thursday. Croatia plays Russia in the final round of play, which does give one final hurdle for the Russians to cover in order to secure the group title.

Russia def. Georgia 3-0 (25-8, 25-6, 25-13)

The 27 points that Russia allowed to Georgia on Thursday is the fewest by any team in the tournament so far, and it could have been worse had Russia not gone deep into its bench in the final set. They were ultimately led by Iulia Kutiukova, who had 10 points (all in the first 2 sets) and Irina Zariazhko-Koroleva, who had 9 on a 71% hitting – including 4 blocks.

In total, Russia out-blocked Georgia 7-1 in the match.

Georgia, while wholly out-matched, did have one bright spot in the match – they managed positive reception on 42% of Russia’s serves and excellent reception on 29%, a relatively-high rate for a team so generally overwhelmed.

“We know that Russia have the best team in these qualifications and are one of the top teams in the world, so it is always difficult to play such an opponent, and this you can clearly see from the final result,” Georgian coach Paata Ulumbelashvili said after the match.

Greece def. Croatia 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-18)

One of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far came on Thursday, when Greece knocked off Croatia 3-0 in front of 700 home Croatian fans in attendance.

While Greece hit only 44% (just one point better than Croatia) in the match, they scored on 11 stuff blocks to just 6 for Croatia, which made a huge difference in the match. Katerina Giota had 4 of those blocks and Antni Vasilantonaki had 3 – for the latter, that was part of her match-best 19 points.

Croatia was its own worst enemy on the day, giving up 23 points on errors. 15 of those errors came on serves, as compared to just 3 aces in 63 attempts. In the 2nd set, Croatia gave away 8 points on serves, in spite of out-playing the Greeks in almost every other way for the frame.

Greece joins Russia as unbeatens through 2 rounds of play, though the Greeks have only 5 points having beaten Hungary by a score of 3-2 on Wednesday to give away a point.

Austria def. Hungary 3-2 (27-29, 25-22, 25-18, 11-15, 15-12)

While a group win would be a tall task, Austria kept their hopes alive for a chance at the 3rd round of qualifying with a 3-2 win over Hungary on Thursday by a 3-2 margin. That’s Hungary’s second-straight tie-break loss.

Sma Markovic  led all scorers with 23 points for the Austrians, all while recording 71% positive service reception on 41 attempts to lead the team both offensively and defensively.

Neither team was overly efficient offensively, but Austria was better in the 5th and final tie-breaking set, where they hit 42% to just 29% for Hungary.