Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 19,2016 - Slovenia claimed victory over Venuezuela in the last match of the Group A with 3-1. Andrea Giani’s team regained their momentum after dropping first set 23-25 by clinching the others at 25-22, 26-24, 25-22. Top scorers were captains Tine Urnaut (SLO) with 14 and Kervin Pinerua (VEN) with 21 points.
Andrea Giani, Slovenia, coach: Venezuela is a team that plays volleyball on higher level than Qatar and Tunisia what they demonstrated tonight as well. We knew that. It was a tough game when we fought point by point. Venezuela is a team physically fit and good in attacks and blocks. We made too many mistakes in the first set, in next ones we played better as we found our rhythm. We still have a lot of work to do to improve our technique.
Tine Urnaut, Slovenia, captain: Venezuela is a very good team, the strongest one at this tournament. We are not used to playing in such rhythm that Venuezuela was dictating today. They are playing very good volleyball and we were forced after two easy wins in which we could gain and keep advantage till the end. Today we had to fight hard point by point. It was also a good experience for us as well as we played the toughest moments of the match with calm and confidence.
Vincenzo Nacci, Venezuela, coach: Today’s game was very good on one and quite tough on the other hand. Slovenia has very good players such as Gašperin and Urnaut. It was very difficult. We were close to winning the second and third set, but in the fourth it was much easier for Slovenia to take the match home. If you make so many mistakes in the last set, you cannot expect to win.
Kervin Pinerua, Venezuela, captain: It was a very interesting match. We played well till the third set when we made a lot of errors under pressure as it was very important for us to win this set. We played well especially in defence. We had a little bit of problem with our serve. But, we are happy with the way we played.