Women's World Championship 2025

Slovenia stun Argentina to keep eighthfinal hopes alive

Historic first World Championship win for the European rookies

Published 11:12, 26 Aug 2025

Argentina (ARG) vs. Slovenia (SLO) women - Pool D #56695908

Slovenia’s Fatoumatta Sillah in attack against Argentina

First-time participants Slovenia not only wrote some history on Tuesday by achieving their first ever FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship win, but also kept their chances of qualifying for the eighthfinals of the ongoing edition in Thailand alive. In their last Pool D game in Nakhon Ratchasima, Slovenia shut out and knocked out Argentina and climbed to second place in the current pool standings on a 1-2 win-loss record and 4 points, leaving the South Americans behind in third on 1-2 and 3. Now Slovenia’s fate is in the hands of USA and Czechia, who will hit the court for the last pool match at 19:30 local time (12:30 UTC). If table leaders USA win, Slovenia will advance. If Czechia win, they will surpass both Argentina and Slovenia in the standings to finish second and snatch that eighthfinal spot.

Watch the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship on VBTV

After taking the lead halfway through the first set, Slovenia stayed in control for the most part through the end of the match, and when their 22-year-old outside hitter Fatoumatta Sillah put away the winning point with a block-out hit, they celebrated a 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-21) victory.

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It was a well-deserved success for the European team as they dominated on the court in all three scoring elements – 42-35 in spike kills, 6-1 in aces and 9-7 in kill blocks. Sillah authored 20 of those attack points and two of those aces to finish with a match-high 22 points. Opposite Eva Zatkovic raised three kill blocks towards an 11-point tally. Middle blocker and captain Sasa Planinsec spiked at a 78% success rate and also put up three kill blocks to reach the double digits with a total of 10 points.

“Oh, my god! It’s surreal right now! I can’t even believe it!” Sillah exclaimed while speaking to VBTV after the game. “Two days ago, we did a really good job in the first two sets, but in the end, we didn’t manage to win and that was really hard for us, because we’ve worked really hard and we wanted to win so badly. We did a lot of thinking, forgot that game and came back to fight, because we knew we could do it. And we did it! So, I am very happy!”

22-year-old opposite Bianca Cugno was Argentina’s most prolific scorer in the match. She led her team with 16 points, including two blocks.