Qualification for the 2024 European Championship (U-22). Women
Paredes (Pavilhão Multiusos de Paredes). Portugal
July 21. 1st round
Ukraine — Denmark 3-2 (25:18, 26:28, 25:20, 18:25, 15:11)
The Ukrainians did beat the representatives of Denmark in the first round of the qualification for the continental championship. At the start of the match, the opponents had a small initiative. The blue-yellow team entered the game for a long time, due to which they repeatedly made mistakes in serving and the attacks - 3:6. After Andrii Romanovych's time-out, his wards equalized parity. But after some time, they again allowed the Danes to regain a three-point advantage.
However, the players of the national team of Ukraine did not give up and decided to make another move. Soon, well-played actions over the net of Kseniia Ratii and Dariia Kaplanska helped our young ladies to finally take the lead - 15:14. And Anastasiia Horbachenko's spectacular reset in the next episode only psychologically finished the opponents' resistance, which could not hold on to the victory in that set - 25:18.
The second set's actions contained an equal struggle. Although on its equator, the blue-yellow team won five rallies in a row on the serve of Dariia Kaplanska, thereby securing a comfortable handicap of 16:11. However, later they relaxed somewhere and completely confused him - 20:20. At the end of the set, there was a controversial episode: at the score of 26:27, the referees signaled an out and awarded the point to the opponents, while the Ukrainians insisted that there's been a block-touch. Unfortunately, there are no video challenges here - and it's a draw by sets - 26:28.
The third set in terms of the development of events resembled the previous one and was marked by so-called "swings". Andrii Romanovych's team tried various combinations, in particular, Kristina Starostenko's first-pace attacks turned out to be quite effective. The attacker brought a lot of important points to her national team. And it was her shot that put an end to this set - 25:20.
After the previous failure, the Danes did not stop fighting. On the contrary, at a certain element, they did take courage. In particular, on the block, leaving the blue and yellows in the role of those who catch up - 8:11, 14:19. It's a pity, but it was our rivals who controlled the course of events at those minutes - 18:25. Fortunately, the Ukrainians women came to their senses in time and returned the debt to their peers from Denmark on the tie-break - 15:11.
Starting line-up: Mariia Kaplanska, Dariia Kaplanska, Kseniia Ratii, Kristina Starostenko, Polina Dziuba, Anastasiia Horbachenko, Kateryna Vasylieva (k), (l).
