EEVZA-2024 Championship (women U-20)

Siauliai, Lithuania

V round. January 7

Ukraine — Estonia 3-0 (25:12, 25:10, 25:21)

After the last failure from the Poles, the blue-yellow team lost their chances of overall victory in the EEVZA championship. Therefore, in today's match between Ukraine and Estonia, the fate of the silver medals of the competition was decided, which were ultimately won by our volleyball players.

Artem Dyhtiarenko's wards confidently seized the initiative from the opening minutes of the confrontation (8:4). It was noticeable how quickly they made decisions, for example, after the ball bounced from the net. For their part, the Estonians did not always have time to block the attacks of the Ukrainians. Hence such a crushing score in the first set — 25:12.

The national team of Ukraine continued to dominate in the second set as well, repeatedly breaking through the opponent's defense. It should be noted that the setter Veronika Tverda tried to act in a varied and, most importantly, unexpected way for her rivals, developing attacks sometimes through Andriana Pavlyk, and then through Marharyta Heiko. By the way, it was the block-out of the latter that put an end to this set - 25:10.

Somewhat unexpectedly, mostly for the blue-yellow volleyball players, Estonians started to fight back and fight literally for every point. Not for the first time in this meeting, they even led the score. Then we witnessed a "swing", and the teams reached the "finish line" with equal chances of winning (20:20). Despite this, the final minutes were without intrigue. Because the Ukrainians, thanks to the efforts of the aforementioned Pavlyk, made an incredible spurt and finished the match - 25:21.

Starting line-up of the national team of Ukraine: Heiko (c) (13), Herasymchuk (11), Starostenko (5), Zharkova (6), Pavlyk (10), Tverda (1), Drapak (l), Prokopova (l). Substitutes: Nakoskina (7).