Top scorers’ battle: Suvi Kokkonen vs Tatjana Bokan, Finland prevail over Montenegro
Story of the day
Montenegro and Finland delivered a thrilling derby this Sunday in their opening fixture in the 2022 #EuroVolleyW Qualifiers Campaign. In a match that lasted almost two hours, the players of Milorad Krunic and Tapio Kangasniemi, respectively, locked horns in four sets. The Finnish players proved better, although the intrigue was alive until the very last moment of the game - Montenegro saved as many as five matchpoints, but then the top scorer of the match - Suvi Kokkonen put the end of the discussion with an ace.
The match turned out to be a real battle between the two teams’ top scorers - Finland’s Kokkonen (who finished with 21 points to her name), and Montenegro’s Tatjana Bokan (who recorded 17 points).
Bokan took the lead in the beginning of the game, when Montenegro emerged victorious at 25-23. Bokan scored nine points in this set (50% exc.), while Kokkonen was just “warming up” with six points (38% exc.). Teamwise, the hosts had two more successful winning spikes (15 to 13), and two more aces (four to two), while Finland were better on the block (two to zero).
With the second set unfolding, Bokan started losing her rhythm a bit, and with four personal errors, scored only two points. Kokkonen, on the other hand, had started to speed up her game, and with five points, delivering a performance with no personal errors, managed to tie the “personal battle of the top scorers”, as both players had 11 each after the end of the second set. Statistically, it was the better attack that helped the Finnish team to equalise the set-score. The players around head coach Kangasniemi had 13 successful attacks (to six by the hosts), 46% to 24% team efficiency on that element.
Keeping the level of their game up, Finland kept dominating on the court in the third set. For a first time in the match, Kokkonen scored more - four points, to three by Bokan. The Finnish player had, as well, better result in excellence - 46% to 35%. As many as 17 winning spikes turned out to be the real weapon of Finland in this part - as Montenegro had only seven.
The guests’ top scorer maintained the high level in the last set as well. She scored six more points, with 43% excellence, while Bokan could record only three (36% exc.). However, Montenegro did show resilience in the last moments of the game, saving five matchpoints. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough to stop Kokkonen - as she closed the match with an ace.
The EuroVolley Qualifiers are live on EuroVolley.TV.
