Bucharest, Romania, May 5, 2018. Reigning champions VakifBank ISTANBUL will have the opportunity to defend their title in Sunday’s final of the 2018 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Women in Bucharest. The Turkish standout persevered through a spectacular five-set rollercoaster to emerge with a 3-2 (25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 15-25, 16-14) victory over the other 2017 finalist, Italy’s Imoco Volley CONEGLIANO, in the first semifinal at the Sala Polivalenta.
After a spectacular laser show, with which the organisers opened the two-day event, it was time for the players of the two teams to show off what they can do on the court in front of the thousands of enthusiastic and noisy spectators on the stands.
The first set was very competitive through the second technical time-out. A monster block by Milena Rasic gave the momentum to a VakifBank breakaway. Moments later, another great block by the Turkish team led them to set point before a fantastic back-row hit by Lonneke Slöetjes fixed the set score at 25-22.
After losing the first rally of the second set, VakifBank were quick to take control on the court and run off with an early three-point lead. With Slöetjes on fire, especially in offence, and a lot of overall precision in the Turkish team’s performance, they stayed in control through the rest of the set and it was the Dutch spiker again that put the ball on the floor to close it off at 25-21.
Despite trailing two sets behind, Imoco had no intention of giving up. With captain Joanna Wolosz serving, her team scored six times in a row to grab a 13-6 lead and make the rest of the third set quite one-sided. The Italian side played almost error-free to maintain their advantage on the way to an impressive 25-17 win, shaped up by Samanta Fabris, who attacked successfully for Imoco’s last two points.
The fourth set was quite a similar affair. Only on two occasions VakifBank managed to gain a one-point lead, at 1-0 and 5-4, but after that it was all about Imoco again. And again, Fabris was the one who spiked off the opponents’ block to end it at 25-15, after scoring seven more points earlier in the set.
As the drama were not already in abundance, the fifth set crowned the match with more nail-biting action all the way through the end. The tie-breaker itself was a rollercoaster set with the lead switching hands several times, while the players were giving it all up on both sides, especially in defence. Zhu Ting scored seven times in this set to give VakifBank the eventual edge. At second match point for the Turkish squad, Gözde Kirdar’s hit was initially called off bounds, but a video challenge by coach Giovanni Guidetti proved the block touch that set off the celebrations on his side of the court.
Samanta Fabris was the top scorer of the match with 28 points for Imoco, while Zhu Ting finished with 24 for VakifBank.
Laura Melandri, player of Imoco Volley CONEGLIANO: “We made a few mistakes throughout the game, but it's only because this is a team, against which we had to take risks. We will learn from this and now we have to fight for the bronze medal.”
Giovanni Guidetti, head coach of VakifBank ISTANBUL: “We played against a very strong team. They play extremely quick, with a lot of options in attack, where everybody can score in any moment. There is no question - they play better Volleyball than any other team in Europe.”
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