On July 29 at 18:00 Kyiv time, the women's national team of Ukraine will meet France in the semi-finals of the Challenger Cup-2023. The game will take place at the home court of our rivals in the city of Laval.
Challenger Cup. Women. 1/2 finals
July 29. Laval, France
18:00 Ukraine — France
The road to the semi-finals
Ivan Petkov's wards were among the seeds when forming the quarter-final pairs of the Challenger Cup. Therefore, at this stage of the competition, they met with the highest-ranked team from the list of unseeded teams - Croatia.
Our volleyball players spent the first two sets literally in one breath, leaving no chance for the opponents. The latter were able to rebuild in the third set and began to demonstrate a more aggressive game in attack, which was effective.
However, fortunately, the blue-yellow team regained the initiative soon after and eventually brought the match to a well-deserved victory.
Ukraine - Croatia 3-1 (25:15, 25:15, 18:25, 25:19)
France, as the host of the tournament, received the lowest rating team as the opponents - Vietnam. Therefore, it was not difficult to predict the winner of the confrontation.
However, it is worth paying tribute to the underdogs who fought on equal footing with clear favorites at least in the first set.
France - Vietnam 3-0 (25:20, 25:16, 25:17)
Previous matches
Ukraine and France managed to play against each other twice this year. The matches took place within the group stage of the European Golden League-2023.
We would like to remind you that the national teams exchanged victories with the same score of 3-1. But it was our athletes who made it to the playoffs, leaving Emil Rousseaux's wards out of the tournament.
Tournament regulations
The winners of the Challenger Cup will qualify for the Nations League. Eight national teams are participating in this year's draw: France, Colombia, Croatia, Ukraine, Sweden, Kenya, Mexico, and Vietnam.
The participants started their journey from the quarter-final stage. The tournament draw was formed according to the world ranking as of July 10. At this moment, the first pair of semi-finalists, namely Ukraine and France, is already known.
Today, July 28, two more national teams will be determined, which will continue the fight for the Challenger Cup:
18:00 Mexico - Sweden
21:30 Colombia - Kenya
The roster of the national team of Ukraine
middle blockers: Svitlana Dorsman, Anastasiia Maievska, Uliana Kotar, Diana Meliushkyna;
setters: Daria Sharhorodska, Viktoriia Oliinyk;
outside hitters: Oleksandra Milenko, Yevheniia Khober, Nadiia Kodola, Yuliia Dymar;
the opposites: Viktoriia Danchak, Anastasiia Kraiduba;
liberos: Krystyna Niemtseva, Alika Lutsenko;
head coach: Ivan Petkov.
