Head Coach Lewis' pride at England U17 girls' NEVZA bronze

Head Coach Darren Lewis says England U17 girls were rewarded for their “tremendous hard work” in clinching a medal at the NEVZA Tournament for only the second time in their history.

The third place finish in Denmark means the team will now go through to the second round of qualification for the European Championships 2024. 

England found themselves in a tough group along with tournament favourites and eventual gold medal winners Finland. 

The Red Rose opened up their account with a 3-1 win against Faroe Islands where, after a nervous start, the team found the style of play that would suit them well for the rest of the tournament – tough serving and solid reception. 

Offensively, opposite Alice Jagielska would go on and dominate the tournament, scoring 67 points in the five matches she played. 

Against Finland – whose coach has aspirations of finishing in the top six in Europe – England struggled with the speed and variation of the offence. 

Nevertheless, despite the 3-0 defeat, it was a great learning experience for what was to come. 

Having finished second in the group, England played Iceland in the quarter-finals, who came third in their group. 

It was a clinical display from England, using with lessons learnt from the Finland, to run out 3-0 winners.

Yasmine Baptiste, one of England’s setters was really growing into the tournament and the offence was finding its rhythm, with a high attack efficiency. 

This set up a semi-final match with the hosts Denmark. England struggled with the service pressure and, apart from the second set, where they put Denmark under pressure, could not side out on a regular enough basis, eventually losing 3-0. 

But in the bronze medal match against Norway, England put on their best performance when it mattered. 

In this match, it was their block defence and the contribution of their outside hitters which would be critical, with Anja Erninio scoring a game high 11 points. 

England wobbled towards the end, but closed out the match 3-1 to spark their celebrations and ensure their continued progress in the Euro qualifiers.  

“I’m so very proud of what the girls have achieved because the standard at NEVZA against some talented Scandanavian countries is very high,” said Lewis. 

“With Finland in there, we knew it would be tough to medal, but at the same time we always had the belief that we could. 

“We performed very well in our first game against the Faroe Islands and that set the tone for the rest of the competition. 

“We knew we would have to be exceptional with our performances and we were. I would like to congratulate the whole team and all our coaches on a fantastic achievement.” 

Lewis says the team will “relish” the second round of qualifying, even though the standard of opposition is sure to go up once more. 

He added: “In January, some of this group played against some of the top teams in Europe, including Italy, who went on to become European Champions, and that has definitely helped push them on. 

“Having played against those sides before, they will know what to expect next Easter – and we won’t fear them.

“We are really looking forward to working some more with the girls to get them in the best possible place they can be ahead of that.”