The Croatian Women’s U19 National Team ultimately finished in ninth place at the World Cup jointly organized by Croatia and Serbia. Our team was unlucky, losing only one match in the tournament—unfortunately, the crucial Round of 16 game, which pushed them into the 9th-16th place group instead of the much-desired 1st-8th place group. In the end, they finished the championship with eight wins and just one loss, to Turkey, who ultimately finished in fourth place.
In their final game, our team played against Argentina and won convincingly 3:0 (25:14, 25:20, 25:17). In the first set, except at 2:2, Argentina was never even tied. In the second set, Argentina led 10:6, but Croatia responded with a 6:0 run to regain control. Toward the end, Argentina managed to tie the score at 19:19, but another 5:0 run from Croatia secured the victory. The third set followed a similar pattern—Argentina led up to 7:5, then Croatia went on another 4:0 run for a 9:7 lead and comfortably closed it out at 25:17.
Our dominance was evident in the statistics—attack points 30:14, blocks 14:4, serves 8:7, while the opponents made slightly fewer errors (23:26).
After the end of the World Championship, head coach Svetlana Ceca Ilić stated:
After the last match, we are filled with positive emotions. Unfortunately, the fact remains that we lost only one match and finished ninth, and there is some regret about that, but it is much less than the pride I feel for these one and a half months we spent together. I feel obliged to thank all the people who invested themselves into the success of this U19 national team—from the clubs, the federation, those who worked with our players, my staff, and everyone who selflessly contributed to make this story look the way it does today. A huge thank you to this U19 national team, which gave their all in every match in an impressive way, and that is what set us apart the most. We did everything we could and gave our maximum. That maximum was enough for eight victories and one loss, and for ninth place. Congratulations also to everyone in Croatian volleyball who contributed, even partly, to this result—there are really a lot of them.
SOURCE: Croatian Volleyball Federation
