The favorites in the 2015 WEVZA U16 Girls Championship continued with their winning streak in the fourth day of competition. Italy and Spain won their matches and will fight for the title in the last game of the championship. Belgium defeated the Netherlands to claim the third position after a great victory.

Italy overpowered Portugal by 3:0 (25-8, 25-7, 25-18). Italian dominated the first set with a very good serve. Portugal could not stop the great performance of their rivals and things did not change much in the following sets.  The Portuguese team made only a slight improvement in its performance but Azurri’s domination was best expressed in the scoreboard, with an impressive victory to reach the last day undefeated.

Pasqualle D´Aniello, coach of Italy said: “Tomorrow we will play the most important match in the tournament. It will be a big test for the team. This will be a special match, like a final. This match against a great rival, Spain, will help us to grow up”.

Spain won their fourth match against Switzerland by 1:3 (26-24, 21-25, 14-25, 23-25). Swiss and Spaniards squads fought bravely for a balanced start. Hosts showed nervous and Switzerland took on the leadership and closed the minimal gap to claim the set. Spain needed to change and improved their performance to tie the scoreboard. The third set was the better for Fortunato Sánchez´s girls. Spain dominated convincingly to win the set by 25-14 and managed to extend their supremacy to the beginning of the fourth set until the 16-20.  Switzerland reacted to reach the tiebreak and Spain recovered the nervous and doubts in their play. However, victory fell to the local side in a thrilling end of match.

Fortunato Sánchez, coach of Spain said:  “The only positive thing was the victory. Today we played bad, very nervous, with a lot of pressure. We couldn´t play as we had planned and showed too many mistakes as we hadn´t in all tournament”.

Belgium beat Netherlands by 0:3 (15-25, 22:25, 18-25) in a match resolved by the good work of the Belgian girls, who showed resilience to overcome the defeat suffered in the previous day. Belgium dominated the first period through their attacks and defences. Belgium maintained the difference in a disputed second set against an improved Dutch Team. The Netherlands tried to come back but the mistakes in reception finished their options, thus facilitating the journey to victory of the Belgian team.

Robin de Bont, coach of Belgian Team declared: “We played just a little bit better than yesterday. Today we showed that we can do the work as we had planned. When we pushed at our highest level we can beat every one. We did a good job today, a very good game plan”.

Click here for all the results of the competition.

Click here for the gallery of the tournament.