Verona, Italy, September 23, 2014 – Parents-crowd supported the Netherlands outplayed combative Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-21) in their debut match at the FIVB Women’s World Championship at PalaOlimpia on Tuesday.
Key points:
•The Netherlands have now beaten Kazakhstan in both of their World Championship meetings
•The Netherlands improved to having won their opening match of six World Championships in a row
•Despite the fact there are just four places that separate the teams in the world rankings, it was a straight sets victory
Celeste Plak and Judith Pietersen were joint top scorers on the Netherlands side with 17 points each. Sana Anarkulova was the best in the Kazakhstan team with 12 points.
The first set started quite close with the players of both sides very concentrated in defence. Kazakhstan arrived first at the first technical time out leading 8-7. The set was a close run until the Netherlands managed to reach a break, so Kazakhstan's coach, Oleksandr Gutor, was forced to call a time out, at 15-12 for his opponents.
The Netherlands succeeded in maintaining 2-3 points of advantage until Kazakhstan closed the gap at 20-21 and Netherlands's coach, Gido Vermeulen, decided to call his first time out. After that point, the Netherlands got back control of the game until the end and closed the set at 25-21.
The second set started similarly to the final section of the first one, with the Netherlands team more concrete than the opponents as they reached the technical time out leading the way 8-3. The Dutch players looked more focused in both defence and attack, while Kazakhstan lacked accuracy, especially in defence.
Gutor called a time out at 13-6 to try to push his team, but the opponents succeeded in comfortably leading to 16-8 to the second technical time out and closed the set 25-17.
Kazakhstan started more determined in the third set leading to 3-8. Only after the Asian side reached 7-13 the Dutch players regrouped to tie the score at 13-13 and to lead the set at 16-15 at the second technical time out.
The match became balanced, with the teams playing point by point until the Netherlands broke away to 23-20 and closed the set and the match 25-21, securing 3 points in their first day at the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship Italy 2014.
The Netherlands will play against Thailand and Kazakhstan will take on USA on Wednesday.