European Golden League-2023. Women
Hungary. Budapest. ÉRD Arena
May 27. 1st round
Hungary — Ukraine 1-3 (25:22, 25:27, 9:25, 23:25)
Volleyball players of the national team of Ukraine successfully started their performances in the European Golden League-2023. In a difficult match, they overcame the resistance of the Hungarians - 1-3 (25:22, 25:27, 9:25, 23:25).
From the opening minutes, Anastasiia Kraiduba assumed the role of the leader: successful actions over the net and a powerful serve of the opposite helped the blue-yellow team to take the lead - 1:3. The hostesses did not want to let our athletes go, and soon Fanni Baginka equalized the numbers on the scoreboard with a spike - 5:5.
Next, a series of errors by the Ukrainians led to a breakthrough of the opponents - 10:7. Ivan Petkov took advantage of the time-out, after which his wards immediately redeemed the point. However, it was not possible to radically turn the game around and catch up with Hungary. On the contrary, in the future, the gap between the teams only grew - 16:11, 18:12.
Anastasiia Maievska gave our fans hope for a comeback with a daring attack at the first pace - 18:14. This moment gave confidence to the blue and yellow, and at the end of the game they finally came to their senses, but it was already too late - 25:22.
At the beginning of the second set, the volleyball players of the national team of Ukraine could not aim their sights on the attack. In addition, the serve was not always successful, which altogether gave a negative result - 7:3. Subsequently, Daria Shargorodska established interaction with Svetlana Dorsman. At that moment, our captain was already successful in the final stages of attacks - 7:6.
None of the teams was particularly stable, so we witnessed a "more-or-less" game - 14:10, 14:13. However, all this time, it was our players who were playing catch-up. The coaching staff tried to correct the situation with substitutions: Uliana Kotar appeared on the court, and Yuliia Dymar was before her. The perturbations were successful: Daria Shargorodska tied the score with a single block, and in the next rally Oleksandra Milenko put her team ahead — 18:19.
Then there was a long pause related to the video challenge. After that, the referees awarded a point to the owners of the court - 21:21. This had a significant impact on the psychological state of our athletes (23:21). Despite this, they did not give up, continued to fight and eventually achieved their goal - 25:27.
Even at the end of the previous segment, Anastasiia Kraiduba took courage. Fortunately, the opposite was able to keep it for the third set, which helped Ukraine to secure a comfortable advantage — 6:10. Soon Oleksandra Milenko reminded herself with two aces - 6:12. In general, all our ladies kept an excellent pace and level of the game, and at a certain point their advantage became simply total - 8:20. Of course, the representatives of Hungary could not recover from this - 9:25.
In the first half of the fourth set, the blue-yellow team could not take advantage - 10:5, 12:8. In contrast to the second, where they gained momentum with each new rally, they were able to reduce the gap to a minimum - 13:12. This happened several more times: the Hungarians broke away, the Ukrainians caught up - 23:22. Then Svitlana Dorsman's effective spike gave us a draw. It's time to go forward, Milenko thought, and she tried her best to hit the ball. Well, Yuliia Dymar set the dot in this meeting - 23:25.
The starting line-up of the National team of Ukraine: Sharhorodska, Dorsman (k), Maievska, Milenko, Kraiduba, Khober, Niemtseva (l); Substitutes: Oliinyk, Dymar, Kotar, Danchak.
