22/11/2017 21:00
Barkom-Kazhany’s home victory highlights second night of CEV Cup action
2018 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men
Lviv, Ukraine, November 22, 2017. Barkom-Kazhany LVIV started their journey in the 2018 edition of the CEV Volleyball Cup with a 3-1 home victory over Israel’s reigning national champions Maccabi TEL-AVIV (25-18, 25-27, 25-19, 25-16) to delight more than 1,000 fans in attendance at Galychyna sports hall. Barkom-Kazhany are making their second straight appearance in the CEV Cup and this time around are hoping to progress to the 16th Finals – but in order to do so they will have to take at least two sets from the re-match scheduled for November 28 in Israel.
The fans enjoyed a very close and exciting match with Volodymyr Tevkun and Borys Zhukov standing out for the home side with their spikes and blocks. Maccabi put up a fight especially in the second set where they emerged victorious after an extremely close race (27-25). However, Barkom-Kazhany responded by taking the third set (25-19) even though one of the star players of Maccabi, Iliya Goldrin, tried to change the course of the game. The hosts easily controlled the fourth set (25-16) and eventually sealed a well-deserved 3-1 victory.
Ugis Krastins, head coach of Barkom-Kazhany LVIV: “We made a huge effort to emerge victorious from this game. This is a very good experience for our team and I hope we made the fans happy tonight.” The organisers expected a full house and more than 1,000 fans eventually turned out to support the home side. “We want to thank our fans for their support because they have been a real incentive to take to the court and fight until the end,” Krastins concluded.
In the other matches on schedule for the 32nd Finals, Montenegro’s Jedinstvo Bemax BIJELO POLJE claimed the derby with Croatia’s MOK RIJEKA 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-19) and Draisma Dynamo APELDOORN of the Netherlands comfortably beat KV Luboteni FERIZAJ of Kosovo in three sets (25-11, 25-16, 26-24). KV Luboteni had travelled for a second time to the Netherlands after earlier this season they had played Abiant GRONINGEN in the second round of the CEV Volleyball Champions League. Draisma Dynamo easily controlled the game in the first and second sets by putting a lot of pressure with their serve before KV Luboteni put up a fight in the third one. However, the Dutch hosts eventually emerged victorious at 26-24 following a block by their Norwegian player Isak Helland-Hansen.
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