The Belgian volleyball women have given their chances of survival at the European Volleyball Championship a major boost. The Yellow Tigers beat Russia with their typical fighter mentality: a 0-2 deficit was turned into a 3-2 victory.
The Yellow Tigers lost 3-0 to Serbia, the European and world champion and bronze medalist Tokyo yesterday, but their performance on the pitch gave them a boost.
As number 11 in the world they went against number 5 Russia, the 7th at the Games, free and clear their chance. And with Herbots in the squad, who was insecure about her abs.
The Belgians made a great start (12-6), but halfway through, an inexplicable reception dip followed. With the Russian star Federovtseva (only 17) on the serve, Russia scored 9 points (!) in a row. Nevertheless, Belgium continued to cling.
The final phase of the 1st set degenerated into a nervous hassle, both for Belgium and Russia. Belgium was the first to force 2 set balls, but they were missed. Russia also missed set chances. Setball 3 and 4 was also lost to the Belgians, who did not play it well.
In a confused phase, Russia got the 29-30 after a challenge, incomprehensible for the Belgians. But the set was gone: 29-31.
In the second set, the Tigers failed to score and were trailing the entire time (from 4-8 to 12-19). In Russia everything worked out in reception, offensively it barely missed anything. There was a brief revival, but Belgium faced a 0-2 deficit: 21-25.
Herbots leads Tigers to turnaround
Anyone who had seen the 2nd set did not give a penny more for the Tigers’ chances. But they again showed their well-known fighting spirit. They had also rectified a lost situation a few times in the Nations League with a 3-2 win.
And that also happened now: in set 3 Belgium first fell 0-4 behind, but then the machine started turning. Especially the serves kept getting better and better. Herbots and co trumped on all fronts. the Russians: 25-13.
In the 4th set Belgium was also the best away (6-4), but for a while a scenario like in set 1 seemed to arrive with 5 points in a row for Russia (6-9).
Alarm phase red. The Russian serves, however, faltered and with fighting volleyball (and a strong Janssens and Herbots), the Tigers got 2 set balls (24-22), also because Fedorovtseva made 2 mistakes. The 1st set ball was immediately the right one. After a long rally, Herbots struck: 25-22.
1 point was already scored, but it became 2. In the 5th and decisive set, Belgium made a blitz start (3-0). Van Gestel excelled, but Russia still came alongside (10-10). The nerves screamed through the throat, with Russia that caused a few mistakes. After a successful float service, Herbots was able to force 3 match balls. And she immediately finished it in style: 15-11. She seemed to have little trouble with her abs.
The joy of the Belgians was enormous. They reaped unexpected points. After the win against Azerbaijan in match 1 tomorrow, a win against Bosnia is enough to advance to the top 4 of the group. And then the Belgians still have a match against France on surplus.
Watch the exciting final phase of set 5:
And the report in the Journal:
