Volleyroos Exit with Heads Held High
Australia’s fairytale Olympic campaign has ended, but in sensational style, after the Australians defeated Poland 3-1 sets in their final pool match.
Victory over the world No. 3 seeds and medal fancies had left Australia’s medal hopes open briefly, but when Argentina defeated hosts Great Britain 3-0, those hopes were dashed.
Australian coach Jon Uriarte said the victory was the ‘perfect’ conclusion to a campaign that started 13 months ago and underlines the ‘evolution’ of his 12-member team, who are all on debut at the London Olympics.
“To picture where we were 13 months ago, it’s been an amazing evolution from there,” Uriarte said.
“The last step today was proving we could deal with the emotion of the Olympics and performing under pressure … and we did that today.”
Captain Igor Yudin said his team’s emphatic 3-1 boilover over Poland (25-21 25-22 18-25 25-22) after leading 2-0, will ensure the Australians end their Olympic campaign with “no regrets”.
“Today we finally did we wanted to do for a whole game,” Yudin said.
“We had some very close games where we were able to dominate very good teams but didn’t quite finish the business.
“We wanted to leave the Olympics with a feeling of no regret and just be proud of what we have achieved.
“For us the whole thing (Olympics) has been huge. The win today showed the potential this team can possibly have in the next year or two.”
The Aussies showed their trademark grit and determination from the outset to fight back from 1-4 down to lead 11-8 halfway through the first set.
Poland fought back and they matched it goal for goal until the Aussies hit a purple patch with five unanswered points to put them in a commanding position and finally shutting them out taking the first 25-21.
Australia were simply awesome in the second set charging out to an 11-4 lead and Poland used two successive time-outs before they started to claw their way back.
Poland narrowed the margin to one point, but in a mirror of the first set the Aussies again scored five unanswered points to take the score to 22-17.
Poland rallied again when Australia had set point at 24-19 reducing the margin to 24-22 but the Aussies found another level and finished it off claiming the second set 25-22.
The third set started tightly with neither side dominating until halfway mark where Poland stepped up and jumped out to a 14-9 lead.
The Aussies fighting spirit saw them pull Poland’s lead back to just 17-16, before they rallied again and this time closed Australia out to take their first set 25-18.
Brisbane teenager Lincoln Williams made his Olympic debut with Poland leading 21-17 and he had an immediate effect scoring on his first touch.
In their other preliminary round matches, Australia beat Great Britain 3-0 and lost to Italy 3-2, Argentina 3-0 and Bulgaria 3-0
Australia only qualified for London 49 days before their opening match against Argentina.
While the 12-member team boasts a great deal of international experience for Australia as well as the majority being contracted to European clubs, they are all on debut on the Olympic stage.
Western Australian and WAIS scholarship holder Luke Smith, represented the Volleyroos throughout the tournament.