Women u20 2021

Belarus progress to U20 battles for ninth place

The European team defeat Egypt in straight sets

Published 07:35, 14 Jul 2021

Belarus achieved their second victory over Egypt at the FIVB Volleyball U20 Women’s World Championship and advanced to the matches for the ninth place in the last phase of the event. This time they defeated the opponent in straight sets in their first Pool H match in Kortrijk, after claiming a dramatic tie-breaker win over the Africans in the first stage of the tournament. Whether Egypt or Belgium will join them from this pool will be decided in the last game, between the co-hosts and Belarus on Thursday.

In a completely one-sided match, Belarus showed no mercy for their opponents from Egypt and crushed them in straight sets by 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-12). The Belarusians aced eight times in the match, while the Egyptians managed to score only two direct serving points. The winners also did much better than the opponents in spiking, 47 kills against 23, and in blocking, eight stuffs against four.

Belarus’s outside hitter and captain Kseniya Liabiodkina scored the match high of 15 points, including three aces. Three more players reached the double digits, all from Belarus and all named Darya - Vakulka (12), Sauchuk (11) and Borys (11).

“I am very happy with the result. Our goal was to play fast to give Egypt as few chances as possible,” Liabiodkina commented. “However, during this match a few working points came up. We made too many individual mistakes and our level of play was not consistent. We are looking forward to the next match, but we are happy with this victory.”