Both teams fought well to grab the first victory in their 2016 WGP campaign
Kaliningrad, Russia, June 9, 2016 – Russia got off to a winning start in Pool C of the Preliminary Round Group 1, with a 3-1 victory over the Netherlands, in front of a vocal home crowd with Nataliya Goncharova scoring a mammoth 29 points to inspire their side to victory.
Yury Marichev, Russia, Coach: It was the first match and the players felt nervous. I told them to do what they can do. They have a great desire to play and I wanted to give each of them such a chance.
Ekaterina Kosianenko, Russia, Captain: All players played well, though they felt nervous. We failed blocking at the beginning of the match, but managed to correct that situation. It was just the first match, we will play better in next mathes.
Guidetti Giovanni, Netherlands, Coach: Unfortunately we lost this match. Russia played a little bit better in every set. Hopefully we will show better game tomorrow.
Maret Balkestein-Grothues, Netherlands, Coach: It was a heavy game for us as we are just starting now. It's always difficult when Russia is starting to push forward as they did in this game. We had a sufficient problems with serving and receiving, and so we've lost our chance.