Greece down Portugal, but drops critical set
Vrachati, Greece, June 1, 2019 - Portual shattered any glimmer of hope Greece may have had at a shot at the final of the women's European Silver League when they ran away with the first set in the northern Peloponnese town of Vrachati, Saturday afternoon.
Greece quickly pulled together to wrap up the game 3-1 (15-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-15), finishing the game on a high with an ace by Angeliki-Melina Emmanouilidou, but that first set could well be detrimental to the outcome of Pool B.
Despite the quick turnaround, Greece still under-performed, providing Portugal with as many as 23 unforced errors - 10 of them in the first set alone.
Olga Strantzali led Greece's scoring with 15 points, but Anthi Vasilantonaki (13), Emmanouilidou (12) and Evangelia Merteki (10) also registered double digits. Julia Kavalenka scored 14 points for Portugal.
Greece, now on a 2-1 record, next travel to Estonia while Portugal, who still seek their first win in the comptition, return home to host table leaders Slovenia.
"We made a very bad star, especially from the service line," said Greece's Spanish coach Guillermo Naranjo. "We gradually improved though in both serving and receiving and produced some good attacking - which is our strong point - that eventually decided the game."
"All this period we worked a lot in getting the sideouts, which only worked for us in the first set today," added Portugal's Brazilian coach Jose Francisco Santos. "The rest of the game was similar to the one we played in Portugal against Greece."
