Seoul, Korea, 1 July 2016 - Wouter Ter Maat scored an impressive 25 points as he led the Netherlands to a 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-18, 25-16) win over Egypt in Group 2 of the World League.
The European side led by Ter Maat with 25 points, ably supported by Maarten Van Garderen with 19 points, earned a four set victory with Egypt once again led by Ahmed Elktob, who scored 22 points in a losing effort.
Both teams went into the match with hopes of making the final four, but it was the Netherlands that got off to the better start taking an 11-6 lead. However, Egypt were intent on making the game interesting and turned the score around to lead 15-14 before the European side re-established the control of the set to take a 1-0 lead with a 25-19 set win.
Egypt hit back almost immediately, taking an early advantage in the set with Elktob once again showing his class. The Netherlands were continuing to play catch-up throughout the set and could not reduce deficit enough to significantly catch their opponents who surged ahead to level the tie at 1-1 with a 25-21 win.
With the momentum in Egypt’s favour, it was expected that another close set would occur but a surge midway through the third set put the Netherlands in a commanding position with Ter Maat and Van Garderen teaming up to give them another lead in the game as they won the third set comfortably 25-18.
By now the momentum was truly with the European side as Ter Maat was having an all-round performance from the front and the back of the court. With Egypt’s resolve diminishing, the Netherlands were in no mood to give up their strong position and grew a huge lead, one that was never going to be caught as they took the game 3-1 with a 25-16 fourth set win.