Eurosport - Sun, 14 Jun 23:37:00 2009
The men's British volleyball team enjoyed two wins over Croatia in Edinburgh to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the final four of the European League.
In the first of the weekend's two matches on Saturday the home side came out on top of three hard-fought sets to win 25-16 25-22 25-23.
The second match on Sunday was a closer affair, and after the Croats won the opening set 26-24 it seemed as if the match could go to the visitors.
But the home side turned things round in style, crusing through the next three sets 25-18 25-16 25-18 to complete their superb weekend.
Britain are now locked in a battle with Turkey to secure the second qualifying spot behind the dominant Spanish. Both Britain and Turkey have won two and lost two of their opening four matches in Pool A; the two sides face each other in Turkey on 20 and 21 June.
British skipper Ben Pipes was delighted with the win.
"That's the first time we've won back-to-back matches," he said.
"I don't think we can be happy with how we played as individual but as a team we did well with players like Kieran O'Malley and Andy Benson doing a job for us.
"Our coach had warned us that they would come back twice as strong in the second match and we need to learn as a team. There's satisfaction in the victory but we need to take these teams 3-0."
In men's Pool B Greece beat Romania twice this weekend after Germany and Belgium split their two mid-week matches, and any of the three teams could yet win the group.
There was worse news for the British women's team than their male counterparts as they lost both their matches against Romania, also at Edinburgh's Meadowbank Stadium.
In Saturday's opening match the team showed some spirit, fighting back from a set down to level the match before succumbing 21-25 23-25 25-20 20-25.
Sunday's second match, however, was a more one-sided affair as the British team went down 25-17 25-13 25-21.
They are now rooted to the bottom of Pool B with no hope of going any further than the group stage after eight losses in eight matches. Turkey and Romania are locked together at the top of the pool, while Serbia, Bulgaria and Spain are fighting it out in Pool A.
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