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Belgium stays afloat, puts Croatia out of contention

Belgium saved a realistic shot at the semifinals of the women’s continental Olympic qualifier in Apeldoorn with a 3-1 (20-25, 28-26, 25-16, 25-22) victory over Croatia, their first of the tournament. The Croats, however, on a 0-2 win-loss record, fell out of contention. With a series of six points in a row, Croatia broke away with a 21-12 lead in the first set. With plenty of set points at hand, they could afford wasting the first four, but on the fifth, Martina Samadan put the ball on the floor for 25-20. With Kaja Grobelna leading the way with 10 points, the Belgians stepped up their spiking efforts in the second set. Samanta Fabris was also on fire (11 points) on the Croatian side to prompt an exciting battle, which went well into overtime. Finally, Belgian setter Ilka Van de Vyver surprised the opponents with an elegant tip on second touch to close the set at 28-26.

There was no stopping Britt Herbots and her Belgian teammates in the third set. They pushed with their serves and scored five direct points on the way to a 25-16 landslide, shaped up with an ace by Manon Stragier for the last point. The battle got hot again in set four. Croatia could not hold on to the four-point lead they had at 12-8 as Herbots continued to hit hard both in attack and from the serving line. She delivered the match point with a powerful pipe and then served for the opponents’ mistake that ended the set at 25-22. On a fantastic total of 27 points (including five aces), Herbots topped the charts of the match. Fabris settled for 20 in the Croatian side.