Bratislava, Slovakia, June 24, 2016 - Michael Finger scored team-high 15 points as Czech Republic beat Netherlands 3-2 (25-21, 19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 15-11) in an exciting five-setter to open the week's Group 2 programme in FIVB Volleyball World League.
The next best scorer for Czech Republic was Jan Hadrava with 12 points, while Netherlands' Woter Ter Maat scored a match-high 19 points. Both teams met for the fifth time in the World League as Czech Republic registered their first victory.
Netherlands lost successive World League matches for the first time since the Final Four of 2014, when they lost against Australia and Belgium (both by 3-0).
Set one saw amazing four consecutive aces from Donovan Dzavoronok as Czech Republic quickly build a comfortable 8-2 advantage. Netherlands, however, managed to regroup and tied the score at 11-11. Both teams were then trading points before Czech Republic went up to eventually close the set out at 25-21.
In set two Czech Republic took the lead again, but lost it soon as Netherlands went up 16-11 at the second technical timeout. Czech Republic failed to respond and allowed the opposition to take the set 25-19.
In set three no team was able to gain a significant advantage and finally Czech Republic kept their heads calm to win 25-23.
Set four was a very tight dispute between two teams until Netherlands went 16-13 in front at the second thechnical timeout. They managed to maintain the gap and finished it off 25-20.
In the tiebreaker Czech Republic established a narrow advantage at the beginning and managed to expand it to 9-6 after an ace from Filip Habr. Netherlands did not recovered allowing their opposition to take the set 15-11.