Luxembourg, December 19, 2017.  The first four eighthfinalists of the 2018 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men emerged on Tuesday, all of them mastering straight-set victories over their opponents in the second-leg matches of the 16th Finals. Russia’s Belogorie BELGOROD, Czech Republic’s Dukla LIBEREC, Slovenia’s ACH Volley LJUBLJANA and Poland’s Asseco Resovia RZESZOW are all through to the next round.

Here are the full #CEVCupM results from Tuesday, 19th December 2017:

Reports received:

Belogorie win clash of the 40-and-above

Just like two weeks ago in Sofia, the match was over in straight sets with powerful domination of the Russian squad – 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-10).

This match could be called an ordinary one, but some features made it look unlike the others. First, on both sides of the court Volleyball fans could see the oldest players of their respective national leagues – 44-year-old Ivaylo Stefanov in CSKA SOFIA and 42-year-old Sergey Tetyukhin in Belogorie BELGOROD. Both of them scored six points each for their teams, and both showed the way to play Volleyball to their young partners.

The second and the most impressive feature of the match was Russian giant Dmitriy Muserskiy playing the whole match in position 4, and it was not bad at all. Muserskiy made 14 receptions without any errors and showed an impressive 62% success rate in attack – 13 of his 21 spikes touched the floor on the Bulgarian side.

After the match CSKA’s head coach Alexander Popov said he was not surprised to see Muserskiy in position 4, as two weeks ago he made the same trick with Hristo Tsvetanov in Sofia. “It’s fashionable now,” the Bulgarian mentor joked. “We were very, very happy to play against such a great team. This is a great experience for us,” Popov summarised their performance in this duel.

Belogorie’s assistant coach Alexandr Bogomolov said he was satisfied with the result and with the chance to try out all the players on the court. “We could try different combinations of the players on court which can help us in future.”

Now Belogorie BELGOROD are waiting for the final result in the clash between Jihostroj CESKE BUDEJOVICE and Hapoel MATE-ASHER AKKO to know their next opponent in the 8th Finals.




ACH Volley do not allow another drama against OK NOVI PAZAR

The home team started determined from the beginning and very quickly took the lead. The Serbian side did not take their opportunities, so ACH Volley extended the gap wide open before Jan Pokeršnik closed the deal at 25-13. In the second set it was not that easy for the Slovenian champions. OK NOVI PAZAR managed to play on a higher level and for the first time in the game they were leading by two points at 10-8. The two teams continued taking turns in the lead. When, after what went on in the first match, another drama seemed to be in the making, Jan Pokeršnik was once again the man who finished the set, this time at a much tighter 25-23. In the third set the home team started better than the opponents and quickly gained the advantage. ACH Volley stayed focused throughout the set, but towards the end let the lead slip away as NOVI PAZAR tied it at 24-24. However, in the next two rallies the Orange Dragons showed a better performance and won the set (26-24) and the match (3-0).

Zoran Kedačič, coach of ACH Volley LJUBLJANA: “I am happy that we started the match at our home venue very well. The visiting team was a little sleepy at the beginning and we managed to take advantage of that. We knew the other sets would be much tighter than the first one was. We were playing very focused today and I would like to congratulate my team for that.”

Andrija Vilimanović, player of OK NOVI PAZAR: '“Today we didn't show our best performance. We had troubles in our team because our best players got injured and couldn't play. This obviously had an impact on us and our game. Even though we lost the first set very quickly, we thought we would come back, but we just didn't stand the chance.”

Schöps and Śliwka drive Resovia to straight-set win

Poland’s Asseco Resovia RZESZOW defeated Finland’s  Perungan Pojat ROVANIEMI in three sets, 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-19), in the second-leg match between them.

Perungan Pojat started better, opening an 8-3 lead in the first set. The home team finally managed to catch up at 16-16. In the decisive moments, bocks by Jochen Schöps and Marcin Mozdzonek gave Resovia a two-point lead (23-21), and the last point fell after the effective action of Thibault Rossard for 25-22. Effective in spiking and serving, Asseco Resovia’s players gained a 9-3 advantage in the second set. A well-performing Schöps was well supported by his teammates, as Aleksander Śliwka attacked successfully for 13-5. The opponents “chipped in” with some simple mistakes towards the eventual 25-20. The two sides fought point for point until 6-6 in the third set. With Mozdzonek contributing from the serving line and Dawid Dryja in blocking, Resovia stepped forward to an 11-9 lead, which they eventually stretched to 25-19 for a victorious outcome of the match.

Aleksander Śliwka, player of Asseco Resovia RZESZOW: “We are very pleased with the result. We slept a little bit at the beginning of the first set, but we managed to get back to our game rhythm. Our goal for this match was to win without losing a set and carrying out our tactical assumptions. We have completed the plan at 100%.”

Dawid Dryja, player of Asseco Resovia RZESZOW: “We are pleased with the victory over Perungan Pojat ROVANIEMI. This win gave us promotion to the next round of the CEV Cup. The Finns were a demanding rival today and we are happy that we took another step towards this trophy.”

To find more information on the competition, click here.