Challenger Cup. Women. 1/2 finals
July 29. Laval, France
France — Ukraine 3-0 (25:10, 25:20, 25:22)
The volleyball players of the national team of Ukraine could not overcome the semi-final stage of the Challenger Cup -2023, losing to the hosts of the tournament, the French. Now, on July 30, our athletes will play for the "bronze" of the competition. Their opponents will be decided a little later in the match between Sweden and Colombia.
The players of Emille Rousseaux started this confrontation powerfully, alternating attacks at the first and second pace — 5:1. In their eyes, you could read a huge thirst for victory because they wanted to take revenge for the failure in the European Golden League. For their part, the blue-yellow team was just looking for their game at that moment. Ivan Petkov's two time-outs before the middle of the set were a highlight. However, it was impossible to find an antidote for the fast French players - 25:10.
The last successful matches of the national team of Ukraine inspired optimism. And indeed they leveled the game - 4:4, 7:7. The Bulgarian specialist made adjustments to the composition of his team: Nadiia Kodola appeared on the court instead of Yuliia Dymar. Finally, the block started working for us and a good serve worked just fine. Yes, after one of these successful serves by Anastasiia Maievska, the opponents were left without an attack and simply turned the ball back, where Svitlana Dorsman was already waiting for it - 9:10.
Rousseaux took a 30-second break, after which his volleyball players regained the initiative — 16:13. Now Ukrainians were in the role of those who catch up. As a result, Petkov once again resorted to rotation: Anastasiia Kraiduba went to the bench, and Viktoriia Danchak came in her place. Unfortunately, all these disturbances did not save the blue-yellow team, and soon Amelie Rotar put an end to the second set with an ace - 25:20.
In the next set, the teams were equal for some time - 6:6. Instead, due to their own mistakes, our athletes lost the rhythm of the meeting - 15:8. It is worth giving credit to the opponents as well because today they were simply outstanding in defense. They earned a lot of points with this element. On the serve of Anastasiia Maievska, we reduced the deficit to two points - 16:14. But, unfortunately, it was still not possible to make a comeback - 25:22.
The best scorer of the confrontation was the French Lucille Giquel (15 points). At the same time, Svitlana Dorsman (10) was the most effective player in the national team of Ukraine.
Starting line-up of the national team of Ukraine: Sharhorodska (2), Dorsman (c) (10), Maievska (4), Milenko (9), Dymar (3), Kraiduba (8), Niemtseva (l). Substitutes: Kodola (3), Oliinyk, Danchak (2).
