European Golden League-2023. Women. Group C
Belfort (Le Phare). France
June 18. 4th match
France — Ukraine 3-1 (25:18, 21:25, 25:16, 25:21)
The women's national team of Ukraine, unfortunately, could not repeat their previous success against France. However, today's game did not have any tournament significance for both sides. After all, the blue-yellow team won a ticket to the "final four" of the European League ahead of schedule, and our opponents, on the contrary, lost all chances to get out of the group.
Compared to the last match, Ivan Petkov made one change in the starting line-up: the captain Svitlana Dorsman was resting this time, and Uliana Kotar appeared in her place from the first minutes. Daria Sharhorodska, Anastasiia Maievska, Oleksandra Milenko, Yuliia Dymar, Anastasiia Kraiduba, and Kristina Niemtseva were making company to the blocker on the court.
The teams started the match evenly. Soon, thanks to, in particular, an organized block, the hosts of the court took the initiative — 4:2, 11:7. The blue and yellows could not turn the tide of the confrontation, so their coach took a 30-second break. After that, the Ukrainians reduced the gap to two points, but no more.
It felt that Emile Rousseaux's players drew conclusions after the previous failure, because this time they paid a lot of attention to the attacking potential of the Ukrainian national team in the persons of Kraiyduba, Milenko, and Dymar. Therefore, it was not easy for our volleyball players to break through the block of the opponents, who earned 8 points with this element in the first set. Petkov decided on substitutions: two Viktoriias entered the game - Danchak and Oliinyk. However, the substitutions did not make any difference - 25:18.
Already at the beginning of the second set, the rivals secured a comfortable lead — 4:1. But the morale-willed blue-yellow team managed to get together, and soon two consecutive aces by Anastasiia Maievska put them ahead - 8:9. The setter Sharhorodska and her team partners finally managed to find the right tempo. Throughout the whole set, they were in the status of leaders, and as a result, they managed to deal with the hosts - 21:25.
Again, the representatives of Ukraine did not have the best start in the next set — 5:1. In those moments, they had little success both in attack and defense. For their part, the French players added to the attack, due to which almost every shot of theirs was effective - 11:4, 15:7. We were not forgiven for such a large number of mistakes by the opponent - 25:16. The fourth set was marked by so-called "swings", but Rousseaux's team had a slight advantage - 25:21.
Starting line-up of the national team of Ukraine: Sharhorodska, Kotar, Maievska, Milenko, Dymar, Kraiduba, Niemtseva (l). Substitutes: Danchak, Oliinyk, Khober.
