Latvia's volleyball team suffers painful five-set loss to Slovenia

Latvia's women's national volleyball team played its fourth Group A match at the European Championship finals in Istanbul on Wednesday, losing to Slovenia 2-3 (25:23, 25:19, 15:25, 13:25, 12:15).

Latvia won the first set after Slovenia had clawed back from an early deficit, and the Latvian team also controlled the second set to take a 2-0 lead. However, the momentum shifted in the third and fourth sets, as Slovenia built commanding leads and won both convincingly.

In the decisive fifth set, Latvia jumped ahead early, but Slovenia rallied to take control. Although Latvia managed to narrow the gap late on, Slovenia closed out the match 15-12.

The defeat was Latvia's fourth in the tournament, following earlier losses to Turkey, Germany and Poland. Slovenia, meanwhile, had lost to Turkey and Poland but beaten Germany before facing Latvia.

Latvia currently ranks 64th in the world rankings, while Slovenia sits 18th. The two teams had already met this June in a CEV European League match, which Latvia lost 0-3.

In official matches against Slovenia, Latvia has now played four times without a win, taking just a single set across all meetings. Latvia last appeared at the European Championship finals back in 1997.

Latvia will continue the tournament on Thursday against Hungary. Four of the six teams in Group A will advance to the knockout stage. The championship is being held across Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Sweden, with the knockout matches taking place in Istanbul.