Evgenia Ukolova: We burnt out a bit in the match against the Netherlands 07.06.2011
Team Russia’s volleyball player Evgenia Ukolova revealed the reasons of their defeat in the final match of the Zonal Phase of the CEV Continental Cup against the Netherlands. Evgenia also noted that she and her teammate Ekaterina Khomyakova will need some time to achieve a good teamwork
- I’ll start with a painful question: why did you fail to put the squeeze on the Netherlands after the win in the first set?
- We were playing our volleyball in the first set, and then we adopted the tempo of our opponents. We tried to speed up a little bit, and this led to errors. And so, losing point after point, we dropped the lead and the Netherlands won. We should have squeezed on them in the second set and stuck to our guns. And as for the tie-break… Judging by me, I would say that we lost with a lopsided score because of our strive for victory. We were so eager to win, but eagerness was not enough for winning. We were not nervous, like we usually are in the tie-break. We just burnt out, we were through with it. We were normal, we were not tired, but we failed to win. The main thing for us now is to make correct conclusions. We still have a chance to qualify for the final of the Olympics, so we need to work. Ekaterina and I became the team not so long time ago, it was our second tournament as a team. We’ll be trying to put on pace and get used to each other. When you play in duos, sometimes it happens that one of the players is no mood or feels ill, so it’s important that the second player backs her up.
- Did weather conditions affect your performance in the match against the Netherlands? For all that, it was raining, the sand was moist.
- I don’t think so. Besides, it started raining at the end of the match and it was not so heavy. The wind got stronger, but we were all in the game and didn’t notice any discomfort.
— Was there any tournament that was spoiled by a nasty weather and you were dreaming of nothing but finishing the match?
- Oh, quite a lot. But the most memorable was the one in Finland, where rain was so heavy that it was impossible to play. It’s warm in Kazan, it’s 16 degrees now and it was less than 10 degrees in Finland. We were not even warming up, because it was pouring. We couldn’t see the ball because of the rain, and the wind was really strong. We couldn’t lift our heads, standing there soaked through to the skin and cold. We couldn’t understand, what was better: put something on or take wet clothes off. It was really tough. Our main goal was to throw the ball over the net because it was as heavy as a stone.
— How important is the tournament in Kazan for you personally and for Team Russia in general?
— Thanks a lot to our Federation and Kazan tourament organisers for delivery of such a great event. It was important for us to qualify for the next round of the Continental Cup at home, in Russia. It’s always easier to play when you are at home, but it hurts that we failed to take the first place. But we still have a chance.
— Are you content with your results at the start of the season?
— Honestly, not completely. This season is important for us because of the Olympics ratings, so our results do not quite exceed either our ot Team Russia’s expectations. The results should be higher, since the selection procedure became tougher. If previously it was top 23 teams that qualified for the Olympics, now only top 16 teams are selected for the Games. We need to get higher, but we’ve failed so far. I hope that all our failures happened only at the start of the season, and now we’ll show better performance. Beach volleyball is the sport where interplay between teammates plays a great role. You need to feel your partner, understand what her other actions will be. You need teamwork here, and to achieve it you need time.
