Czech Republic celebrates first 2016 World League victory
Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, June 18, 2016 - Czech Republic claims first victory this season, playing China on home court. The hosting team defeated China 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-17).
This is the first World League meeting between these nations as all previous seven were at World Championships. Their most recent encounter goes back to 2010 World Championships, when Czech Republic also won 3-1. The best scorer of Czech team was Michal Finger with 15 pointts, while Dai Qingyao scored 20 for China.
Miguel Falasca gave the opportunity to the same starting six as on Friday against Canada. Very young Chinese team didn't have any fear about Czech Republic and with agressive attacks from zone 2 and 4 kept the pace with Janouch´s fast game with middle blockers. The sequence of unforced mistakes cost local squad a lot of points, putting them 18-13 behind. Despite the big help from bench players, Czech team lost 25-21.
Asian pressure continued in the second set, strong serve was helping to confuse Czech blockers and China stretched the gap to 14-11. Great performance by bench players Bartos and Zmrhal, with the help of Marek Beer, allowed Czech to tie at 18-18. Middle blockers add extra points with Jakub Vesely blocking for 21-18 for Czech Republic. Two kills of Jan Hadrava ended set 25-22.
After the lost set China stood up, leading 9-5. While Janouch went to serve, he didn't come down until his team pushed the score to go 11-10 ahead. Donovan Dzavoronok helped with another ace, when score was tight at 19-19 and thanks to him Czech team won 25-23.
Fourth set was dominated by the excited Czech Republic. Leading since the beginning, Czech outplayed China in all elements and win first match of the international season 25-17.