Almaty, Kazakhstan, July 14, 2017 – Germany defeats Kazakhstan in their first match in Almaty, winning 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-21). Louisa Lippmann led Germany with 17 points.
Despite being best scorer on the winning team (15 spikes, 1 block and 1 ace), Lippmann had to give best scorer title to Kazakh Alla Bogdashkina, who scored 20 points including incredible 11 blocks, 8 spikes and 1 ace. German Jennifer Pettke was close to even the kill-block record with 8 points in this element, but it was Jennifer Geerties who was second best scorer for Germany with 14 points (11 spikes, 1 block and 2 aces). Yekaterina Zhadnova met Lippmann points-wise, with 14 spikes and 3 blocks.
Germany coach, Felix Koslowski – “I think Kazakhstan really played way better than last week. I expected much more from them, which is exactly what they showed to us with amazing work in block and defence. It was very hard for my spikers to find a way to score today. It is the good work of the Kazakhstan coach to prepare the team well. But anyway, I am very happy with my team that we found our rhythm after losing the first set.We did not collapse. We came back in the match.”
Kowlowski added: “Germany is known to be a team with fighting spirit on the court. This is our culture, and we have to bring in this culture to this new group of players.”
Germany captain, Denise Hanke – “Kazakhstan played an amazing game. It was really hard for us and we had problems to come back in the game and find our rhythm. It was a hard fight, but we faced our problems in the beginning.”
Kazakhstan coach, Vyacheslav Shapran – “Congratulations to this strong and fighting German team. We saw them play against Bulgaria, a strong team with many superstars. We wish you are able to reach your dreams to go to the finals.”
Shapran added: “Of course, Germany is a stronger team than us while we have a lot of injuries in the team, and we tried to keep our offence simple. Our young players may not be ready for this level of competition, but they will be, in time, and they will gain good experience in the World Grand Prix. Today, we showed good volleyball somehow, as we tried to fight for every ball, every set.”
Kazakhstan captain Radmila Beresneva – “I would like to congratulate Germany with this well-deserved win. But I think we played better today than we did in Bulgaria. We had a very good first set, and some parts of the second set. We see that we can improve our volleyball and we can play better in the next games.”
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