Slovenia finish fourth at the World Volleyball Championship

Katowice – Slovenia lost against Brazil in Katowice, Poland, on Sunday to finish fourth at the World Volleyball Championship. It lost to Italy in the semifinals.

Slovenia did not realise their goal of winning a medal at the World Championship after winning three silver medals at the European Championships, having to concede to Brazil 3:1 (18, 18, -22, 18) despite putting up a strong game.

As Slovenia failed to fight off Brazil’s serves the South American team added the seventh medal from World Championships to their collection, and the first bronze.

Unlike at the match against Italy, Slovenian players started each set except for the third set strong but their rivals took advantage of even the slightest slip to gain advantage, which they kept until the very end.

Slovenia were behind 0:2 in sets and 8:14 in the third set but they did not surrender and even managed to frighten the opponent with a set won and a 4:0 lead in the fourth set but Brazilians showed quality play and earned their victory in the end.

“The fourth place that nobody wants, but I’m happy we at least put up a fight today. We didn’t quit, Brazil played very well, especially at the serve … It was a crushing defeat, but we have to admit the Brazilians were better,” said Slovenian player Robert Ropret.

“It was hard to play two such games in such a short time, but that’s not an excuse. We were both a bit tired, but the Brazilians were better,” he added.

“When you look at it, its a top result, but everyone wants a medal. We’ve achieved our goal of making it to the final four, but when you get to here, everyone wants the gold medal. Yesterday Italy was too strong, today Brazil … Congratulations to Brazil, they really played well at the serve. They deserved the third place and we made history in fourth,” said player Rok Možič.

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