VOLLEYBALL ⋅ The Swiss volleyball players have successfully started their European Championship qualification. The team of coach Saskia van Hintum wins the first of two key games against Estonia 3-2 in the tiebreak.
The game seemed already lost after Switzerland fell 8:13 behind in the decisive fifth round. But then the Swiss showed strong nerves under the direction of the outstanding Maja Storck: They scored six points in a row, shortly afterwards they used the second match point to make it 16:14.
Storck, the most valuable player of the last Bundesliga season, scored five of the last eight points, including the winning one. In total, the attacker contributed 35 points to the eminently important start victory. Before the nerve-wracking final phase, the Swiss had played incorrectly for a long time. They lost the first round, turned the game and had to let the Estonians equalize again to 2-2 after sets.
On Wednesday, the Swiss will meet group favorite Belarus in their second of four games. In the group of three, the first and the second qualify for the EM in autumn. (sda)
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