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Czechia stayed unbeaten in women’s EuroVolley 2021 qualification Pool F after a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-22) shutout of Slovenia. The Czechs, now on 5-0, had already qualified for the finals even before Saturday’s match in Zenica. Slovenia’s win-loss record is now down to 2-3, but they are still in contention for the other available ticket.

Czechia stormed into the match on a 4-0 run, but wasted their lead to let Slovenia step in front momentarily at 8-7 and 9-8. However, the Czechs regained control to break away again and won the set convincingly by 25-18, with Michaela Mlejnkova hitting for the last point. After losing the first rally of set two, Czechia won the next seven and stayed consistent through the end, outplaying the opponents in both spiking and blocking. An even more convincing 25-15 was fixed with a kill block by Gabriela Orvosova. Despite a late five-in-a-row push by Slovenia that brought them back to within two (18-20), Czechia never lost grip of the third set. Orvosova was on fire, scoring as many as nine points in the set, including her team’s only ace in the game and a pipe shot for the match winner that closed it off at 25-22. With a total of 14 points to her name, Orvosova was the top scorer of the match.

Alessandro Chiappini, head coach of Slovenia: "With this defeat, we practically lost the chance of qualifying for the European Championship. We knew that we were in a difficult strong group and that it would be difficult to place. We have to play another match and I hope we will be on the level and try to achieve victory. That victory would be very important for our young team. It would be very important for young players’ experience to win."

 
Ioannis Athanasopoulos, head coach of Czech Republic: "This was the hardest match for us in the whole tournament. It was necessary to motivate the girls to be focused on the match. We wanted to be fair, we have our principles and we showed that we are the best team in the group. Of course, we will try to finish the tournament with a victory in the last match with Latvia. We are happy to have taken our national team to the European Championship, especially since we missed the championship two years ago."