After two days of the qualification tournament in Turkey, Polish ladies have two victories. “We showed our fighting spirit, especially in the tie-break, and won the match,” added coach Alojzy Swiderek.
On the first day, Polish national team played nearly perfect, especially in defense and block (18 blocks in 4 sets!). Katarzyna Skowronska-Dolata scored 19 points, but she was not the only leader in the team. Also Anna Werblinska (with 16 points) and Berenika Okuniewska (14 points) were great weapon against the first rival.
On the next day, Poland also triumphed as the winner of a dramatic encounter with reigning world champions Russia in the day’s second five-set thriller, sealing a 3-2 (25-17, 16-25, 25-21, 19-25, 18-16) victory to consolidate their place at the top of Pool II. Katarzyna Skowronska-Dolata topped the scorers’ chart with 25 points for the victors while Russian star Ekaterina Gamova lagged three points behind.
Poland’s serving was also dominant as they notched up 10 aces against just two for Russia.
“We are happy to win against such a challenging opponent like Russia,” Polish captain Katarzyna Skorupa said after the match. “They have always been difficult to play against because of the height of the players. It was not easy to break through their blocks, but we were able to overcome this difficulty and win.”
“We showed our fighting spirit, especially in the tie-break, and won the match,” coach Alojzy Swiderek added. “However, we made many mistakes in the second set, which I was not happy with.”
