VNL 2023: Second Win for Netherlands after 3-0 Bulgaria

The final day of week 2 pool 3 in Hong Kong started off with Netherlands’ 3-0 victory (26-24, 25-17, 25-17) against Bulgaria. This is the second victory in the tournament for Netherlands, after having played 8 games. Meanwhile, Bulgaria remains with 1 win after playing the same number of games. Both teams have finished all their matches in week 2 in Hong Kong.

Despite losing the match, Merelin Nikolova was the top scorer of the match, scoring 17 points for the Bulgarian team.

After the match, our journalist interviewed Lorenzo Micelli, the coach of the Bulgarian team. He pointed out that they missed the opportunity to convert the set point in set 1 with the young team, and they took too much pressure after losing the set. He thinks the team has to learn step by step.

We also asked the coach whether the team feels pressured, with the last-placed challenger team Croatia closing the gap between them after winning against South Korea and able to get a set from USA and Serbia. However, the coach answered that their team is not pressured by the results of team Croatia as they’re still leading on points with the same number of victories (Bulgaria with 1 win and 5 points while Croatia with 1 win and 3 points), and they are yet to play South Korea. He also pointed out that both teams have the same number of matches left and they hope to play their best to improve their record.

Our journalist also spoke to Kirsten Knip, the team captain of Netherlands. She said that at the beginning of the match, the team had trouble with the service from the opponent team, but they managed to gain control later and control the whole game. She also praised the team’s ability to stay calm and patient in today’s match.

Looking back at week 2, the Dutch libero said that she is very satisfied with the team’s performance in Hong Kong. Although she thinks they should have won yesterday’s match against Italy (which they lost 2-3), she thinks that they’re on a good path compared to the team’s performance in week 1.

(Reported by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)