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EuroVolley Takeaways: Haak Leaves With 247
Italy beat Sweden 3-1 in Brno. Isabelle Haak finished on 247 points, the most any player has scored at a European Championship since 2011, and Sweden is going home.
Italy beat Sweden 3-1 (21-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-23) in the EuroVolley quarter-final at Brno on Wednesday, and Isabelle Haak went home with the biggest individual tournament any player has had at a European Championship since 2011.
Haak scored 42 points against Italy, 38 of them from attack, with three aces and a block. Across the championship she finished on 247 points, an average of 9.15 a set.
That average is taken over 27 sets, which is everything Sweden played from the group stage to Wednesday night. No player has scored that many at a European Championship since 2011, on the CEV's own count.
The old mark was 229, set in 2023 by Serbia's Tijana Boskovic, who is still in this tournament while Haak is not. Sweden had reached the quarter-final by sweeping co-hosts Czechia 3-0 in Brno two days earlier.
Hanna Hellvig, the Sweden outside hitter, quoted by the CEV after the match:
Of course, we are disappointed that we lost, but I'm so proud of everyone on the team. It's amazing even to think that we managed to play like that and compete at this level against the best team in the world. It's crazy, so we are definitely proud of ourselves.
Italy Won Three Straight Sets by Eight Points
Sweden took the opening set 25-21 and then lost 26-24, 25-21 and 25-23. The combined margin across those three sets is eight points.
Italy is the world champion and the highest-ranked side in this competition, and it did not take a set by more than four points all evening.
Sweden won 93 points on the scoreboard across the four sets and Haak scored 42 of them herself. The other 51 came from every other Swedish attack, block and serve, and from Italy's errors.
Italy has Paola Egonu, Myriam Sylla and a bench that has won a world title, and it needed four sets against a country that had never reached this stage of the tournament before this fortnight.
Paola Egonu, the Italy opposite, in the same CEV report:
We are really happy and proud that we made it to the top four. It was an amazing match, and we fought until the very end. I'm super happy with our performance. In those decisive moments, we had to remain calm and mature and do the right things without becoming anxious. I'm very happy that we found a way to stay together and prevail.
Serbia Has Not Missed a Semifinal in Eight Editions
Serbia beat Greece 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-17) in the other Wednesday quarter-final and has not dropped a set in the whole tournament. The CEV counts it as an eighth consecutive EuroVolley semifinal.
Nobody else left in the draw can say that. Serbia has gone through a group stage, a round of 16 and a quarter-final without giving anybody a set to work with.
Greece reached the last eight for the first time, by its head coach's account, and lost a player to injury on the way through.
Apostolos Oikonomou, Greece head coach, speaking to the CEV in Brno:
We are proud of what we achieved here. Today, it is hard to celebrate because we are very unhappy and sad about this injury, especially as it adds to an already long list of injured players. But in the end, if we summarise this tournament, we have to be very proud of what we did. Not only did we reach the last 16 after many years, but we also made it to the top eight for the first time in history, so we have many reasons to be really proud.
Sweden's Fortnight Was the Best It Has Had
Sweden came to Brno having beaten Croatia in a match where Haak scored 52 points, ten more than she managed against Italy. It left having beaten the host nation.
That is the best run a Swedish women's team has had at this championship, and the people who watch it for a living are saying so out loud.
Almir Ljutovac, a volleyball analyst for Sweden's Radiosporten, quoted by the Swedish federation and translated here from the Swedish:
It was by far the best I have seen a Swedish women's national team perform.
Two quarter-finals remain and both are played on Thursday, with the semi-finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday. Haak will not play in any of them.
Two teams are through and two more join them on Thursday, and each of the four will have at most two matches left to take it off her.
