Dutch players and staff celebrate the victory over Slovakia
Bratislava, Slovakia, June 24, 2016 - Maarten Van Garderen helped the Netherlands win their first match in Bratislava and third in this season of Group 2 of the FIVB Volleyball World League. His team beat hosts Slovakia in four sets - 3-1 (25-14, 21-25, 25-14, 25-23).
Van Garderen aced twice and made 16 successful spikes to lead the scorers' charts with 18 points. Peter Mlynarcik was Slovakia's best scorers with 16 points in offence.
This is the second time the Dutch defeat the Slovaks in four sets in this edition of the World League after they did it in Turkey as well.
The Netherlands started strong. The Oranjes served very well and caused a lot of problems for Slovakia in reception. The home team did not find an answer and lost the first set by 14-25.
The coach of Slovakia Miroslav Palgut made some changes in the lineup and it worked. Slovakia led by 11-7 and played better. The guests leveled the score at 17-17, but Matej Patak had the final word of the set and Slovakia won it by 25-21.
The third set was almost the same as the first one. The Dutch players took it completely under their control and won by 25-14 again.
At the second technical time-out of the fourth set Slovakia had a 16-14 lead and the fans were hoping to see a decisive tie-breaker. But then the Netherlands turned the score from 18-20 to 22-20, thanks to good serving and blocking, and finally won this set by 25-23.