In their first match in the Games in 16 years, the Europeans used their height advantage to overcome the skilled Asians
Magdalena Stysiak and Agnieszka Korneluk were Poland’s main scorers against Japan
Poland got to celebrate a victory in the women’s volleyball tournament of the Olympics again after 16 years on Sunday as the Europeans came from behind to overcome Japan 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-23, 28-26) in the team’s opening match at the Paris 2024 Games.
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The Pool B duel held at the South Paris Arena 1 in front of a loud and massive crowd gave the Polish, who are back in the Games for the first time since Beijing 2008, their first three points in the tournament – the Europeans also collected 7.46 FIVB World Ranking points, passing Türkiye to rise to third place with 372.85.
In order to come back and defeat the Japanese, who are seventh in the world with 330.89, the Europeans relied on their height average, which was 16cm higher than their opponents (1.86m to 1.70m).
Accordingly, the team’s two tallest players, 2m-tall middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk, with 20 points (12 kills, eight blocks), and 2,03m-tall opposite Magdalena Stysiak, with 18 (17 kills, one block), were its main scorers in the match.
“It was very emotional, we were waiting for this match for so long and when we heard our national anthem, it was like a dream come true,” said outside hitter Natalia Medrzyk, who scored 11 points. “We expected this match to be tough, but it was much harder than I thought. We are taller, but they are excellent defenders and we needed a lot of patience against them to understand that we would almost never score in our first attempt and that we’d need to find solutions to put the ball down. I think our blocking was excellent too. It’s great that we got to start with a win and we’ll try to get more.”
Japanese blockers try to stop Poland’s Natalia Medrzyk
Stronger at the net, the Polish outscored the Japanese in blocks by 14 to four – their opponents were better in kills (66 to 55) and aces (five to three).
Japan had the match’s top scorer in captain Sarina Koga, who produced 26 points (25 kills, one block). Outside hitter Mayu Ishikawa, with 16 points, and opposite Yukiko Wada, who came off the bench to add 13, also had solid performances.
“The first set went really well for us, but once their blocking got better things became more complicated,” Koga reflected. “They got several blocks and we…
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