Qualla: 2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship

2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sander van Ginkel, CC BY 2.0. The host country had reached the final. Eleven thousand Dutch fans filled Rotterdam Ahoy on October 4, 2015, expecting - hoping - to see their team finally lift the trophy at home. What they got instead was a clinic. Russia took the first set, then the second, then the third. The Netherlands, ranked outside Europe's traditional top tier, had played the tournament of their lives just to reach this stage. They simply could not stop Tatiana Kosheleva. The Russian outside hitter swung, the ball found the floor, and a country watched a 19th European crown go east in straight sets.

Image: Sander van Ginkel | CC BY 2.0

2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship: Hosts and Co-Hosts

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waacstats, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 29th edition of Europe's women's championship was a two-country affair, played from September 26 to October 4, 2015 across the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch championship manager was Peter Blange, who knew this stage well - he had played on the Netherlands men's team that...

Image: Waacstats | CC BY-SA 3.0

2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship: The Host That Wouldn't Lose

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Apdency, CC0. The Netherlands had never won this title. They came into 2015 ranked respectably but were not the favorites; Russia, with eighteen previous European championships, was. What followed was a quiet revelation. The Dutch worked their way through the bracket, riding home-crowd noise t...

Image: Apdency | CC0

2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship: Kosheleva's Tournament

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Russia's outside hitter Tatiana Kosheleva had been the MVP at the 2013 edition in Germany. In 2015 she did it again - back-to-back. Few players in any sport are voted most valuable at consecutive continental championships, and the achievement is harder still in volleyball, where ...

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

2015 Women's European Volleyball Championship: What Stayed Behind

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MSchnitzler2000, CC BY-SA 3.0. Russia took home the trophy and a 19th title. The Netherlands took silver - their best-ever finish at a European championship at the time, a result that turned a generation of Dutch schoolgirls into volleyball fans almost overnight. Serbia took bronze, the closing notes of a tour...

Image: MSchnitzler2000 | CC BY-SA 3.0