Egypt celebrate their Group 3 victory after 5 years of World League absence
Bratislava, Slovakia, July 5, 2015 - Volleyball team of Egypt celebrate a successful come-back to FIVB World League after 5 years of absence. The African team win Group 3 Finals in Bratislava, where they beat rookie Montenegro in dramatic final match in the Slovakian capital city: 2-3 (20-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 9-15). Egypt lost only one game in this season of World League and will play next season in Group 2.
Egypt started the final match better and took an early lead 5-2. African team served very well and caused a lot of problems to Montenegro in reception. When setter Bekhit hit the ace, the score was 17-13 for Egypt and the team mentored by Italian coach Angiolini Frigoni won the first set 25-20.
Montenegro had rocket start to second set, captain Vojin Cacic was successful with powerful attack and the team from Balkan lead 8-5. Egypt woke up in the second part of the set and levelled the score to 17, but Montenegro was better in final moments of the set and won it 25-21.
Unstopable Egyptian opposite Abdelhay Ahmed hit the ace in the third set and African team lead 8-5. Egypt was up through all the set, but at the end they suffered big loss, because first setter and one of the best players on court Abdallah Bekhit injured his leg muscle and had to be substitued when the score was 20-17. Egypt finally won the set 25-23, but he was not able to come back on the field of play.
Fourth set was under controll of Montenegro team. They had problems only in final moments of the set when Egypt closed the gap from 19-24 to 23-24 when second setter Abdalla Hossam was in serve area, but Montenegro finally got the fourth set 25-23 and the gold medal match had to be decided with a tie-break.
Egypt lead 6-4 in last set of the tournament, but Montenegro came back and sides were changed by score 8-7 for the Balkans. Then Masoud Mohamed came in and created problems with his float service. Egypt collected seven points in a row and finally won fifth set 15-9 and the top of the podium.