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Following the straight set upset to France on Friday night, Romania faced undefeated in Pool A team from Spain. The pool leaders at a time won first two sets, when Romania fought to level the score and extend their chances for a win. Romanians kept the momentum, securing a five-set win against the Spanish side.

Both teams went head to head in the first two sets, with Spain initially losing their four-point advantage in the first set, only for Romania to suffer the same issue in the second part. Spain won both sets by a slim margin, at 24-26. Romania found a new motivation across third and fourth set, with Ioana Alexia Carutasu leading the way as the top scorer for her side. The fifth set was the closest between both teams, who played point by point until 12-11. Romania secured final victory at 15-12.

• Ioana Alexia Carutasu was the top scorer of the game with 28 points for the winning side. Adelina Budai-Ungureanu followed with 22 points.

• Ana Escamilla scored 26 points for Spain, while Maria Segura Palleres and Raquel Montoro scored 21 and 20 points respectively. 

• Both team fought head to head at the service line, with Spain scoring 5 aces and Romania contributing 4 points in this element

• Block worked well on both sides of the net - Spain scored 16 points and Romania 15.

• Ioana Alexia Carutasu and Lucrecia Castellano were the best blockers, scoring 6 points each for their teams. 

Maria Segura Palleres, captain of Spain: “It’s a bit disappointing, because we were 2-0 ahead, we were leading the game playing our best volley in the tournament. In the third set we did not defend much and we made so many mistakes in the 5th set, especially in service and defense. I think we lost the game because of our defense. It is a difficult feeling now just after the match because we have to wait for the result of the France match to know if we still have a chance to qualify. But we will play our best tomorrow to win.”

Marius Vasile Macicasan, coach of Romania: “We played very good on court, we made too many mistakes in second set. Spain played very quickly and for us it was very difficult to understand some things in block and defense. But today my team had good concentration for what they had to do. They didn’t lose their focus when Spain sometimes worked very well. I’m happy about that.”

Adelina Budai-Ungureanu, outside hitter of Romania: “It’s a win so we are definitely happy. We would have preferred for it to be 3-0, but I’m happy for the team and how they reacted in the third set. We’ve put some things together and I’m happy about the result. We made too many direct errors and it’s very hard to win this way. The key was to stop these errors and communicate more. The change was in our game, that’s what coach told us - to improve our game and that is what we did.”