Lonneke Slöetjes after the Netherlands win over Argentina
Yokohama, Japan, October 3, 2018 - The Netherlands won for the fourth game in a row at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship on Tuesday, beating Argentina 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-22), and the team’s top-scorer Lonneke Slöetjes insists the team remain focused and hungry for success.
Netherlands player Lonneke Slöetjes: I’m very happy that we won. I think we did pretty well, but we can still upgrade in some parts of our game. To play at our best level we need to grow a little. The third set was pretty tight, but it was fun to play in.
I think it’s very important to stay focused on what is next and what is ahead of you. Of course I know some of the teams from the other pool, but I’m only focused on what’s next on the schedule; so now we have lunch!
Netherlands captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues: I think we did a solid job today. In the third set we had a few problems with Argentina’s serve, we had some trouble with that, but I think it was a clean victory and our block and defence were pretty good.
Yesterday my husband told me how things are going for the next pool if we continue like this. I didn’t think about it yet though, for us first is Mexico tomorrow, which we also need to win. I know we could be playing against Serbia and maybe Brazil, but how it will be and when we don’t know yet.
Netherlands coach Jamie Morrison: Argentina’s a good volleyball team. The last time we played them in the Nations League we came out and didn’t play a good first set and lost that set. We set a goal of coming out and playing differently, and I’m proud of my team for the way they played. We need to be more consistent going through this tournament, but we’re continuing to improve and we’re looking forward to playing Mexico tomorrow.
Argentina coach Guillermo Orduna: First of all I’d like to say congratulations to the Netherlands. The job that head coach Morrison is doing is not easy. This is their fourth championship and being able to play in this way is worthy of praise. For Argentina, our target was to proceed to the next round and that target unfortunately cannot be met. Nevertheless, what is important is that even when facing challenges and difficulties we have still been able to give our opponents difficulties in each match and play our volleyball.
Argentina captain Emilce Sosa: At the beginning of today’s match we were able to compete with the Netherlands, but their service gave us some trouble. Their very high block was also tough, they mainly attacked our main blockers so we weren’t able to show our own play. I think the Dutch were worthy winners.