52 Points, one point short of history: Isabel Haak’s masterpiece at EuroVolley 2026!
3 min read
Some volleyball performances are difficult to explain with numbers alone, and Isabelle Haak’s night against Croatia is one of them.
On Tuesday August 25 2026 in Gothenburg, with Sweden facing elimination from a match that appeared to be slipping away, the Swedish superstar produced an extraordinary 52-point masterpiece and dragged her team back from two sets down. Sweden eventually completed an incredible 3–2 comeback, winning 16:25, 22:25, 25:19, 25:16, 23:21 after 131 minutes of drama.
Haak scored 52 points with three aces and two blocks. And, most importantly, 14 points in the decisive fifth set, when Sweden repeatedly found itself on the edge of defeat.
Croatia had five match points and still could not find a way to stop her.
It was a performance that immediately rewrote Haak’s own European Championship record. Her previous best had been 42 points, meaning that she improved her personal mark by an astonishing ten points in a single night.
And yet, there is one fascinating detail hidden behind that number.
Fifty-two points are not quite the highest total ever produced in a single Women’s European Championship match.
For that, we have to go back 27 years.
Back to 1999. Back to Italy.
And, inevitably, back to Croatia.
On September 24, 1999, Italy and Croatia met in the European Championship semifinal.
It became one of the most painful nights in Italian women’s volleyball history, as Croatia survived a five-set battle 3–2, with the sets finishing 22:25, 25:16, 25:22, 23:25, 13:15.
The official CEV records confirm the five-set victory that sent Croatia into the final.
At the centre of it all was Barbara Jelić.
The Croatian opposite produced an extraordinary 53-point performance, a number that has remained one of the most remarkable individual totals ever recorded at the European Championship. She was the player Italy simply could not contain as Croatia fought its way into the final.
Italy were left with the bronze-medal match, while Croatia went on to claim silver.
Now, more than a quarter of a century later, another Croatian match has produced another historic chapter.
Only this time, the superstar was wearing Swedish colours.
Haak finished just one point behind Jelić’s 53.
One single point.
The irony is almost too perfect: in 1999, Croatia were the team celebrating after an unforgettable five-set battle against Italy.
In 2026, Croatia were once again involved in a match that entered European Championship history — but this time they were on the wrong side of a performance for the ages.
Twenty-seven years apart, two Croatian battles, two legendary opposite hitters and just one point separating them.
Barbara Jelić still has 53.
Isabelle Haak has 52.
And somehow, Croatia is written into both stories!
Records of points in an EuroVolley Women since 2011:
52 pts — Isabelle Haak 🇸🇪 (vs Croata, 2026)
42 pts — Isabelle Haak 🇸🇪 (vs Finland, 2021)
41 pts — Melissa Vargas 🇹🇷 (vs Serbia, 2023)
39 pts — Samanta Fabris 🇭🇷 (vs Türkiye, 2019)
39 pts — Tijana Bošković 🇷🇸 (vs Türkiye, 2021)
38 pts — Isabelle Haak 🇸🇪 (vs Slovakia, 2026)
