Bucharest, Romania, May 6, 2018.  VakifBank ISTANBUL defended their CEV Volleyball Champions League title from 2017, adding an overall fourth gold medal from the most prestigious club competition in Europe to their record. In the big 2018 final in Bucharest, the Turkish powerhouse cruised to an impressive 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-17) victory against hosts CSM Volei Alba BLAJ to triumph with the trophy.

As heavy pre-favourites against the first Romanian team in history to play in a Champions League final, VakifBank made sure they showed immediately who would be calling the shots in this match and stormed into the first set with a 9-1 run. With noisy support from the packed stands, Alba managed to level the game, but it was already too late to level the score as well. Themselves supported by hundreds of their own supporters, and led by an excellent Zhu Ting, VakifBank cruised on to a comfortable 25-17 win, with Zhu acing for the last point.



Coach Giovanni Guidetti’s squad was even more merciless in the second set. With almost perfect organisation by the net and Milena Rasic on fire, VakifBank left no doubts over their superiority and ran off with a 25-11 win.



Alba put on an effort to return into the match at the beginning of the third set. They even managed a four-point lead at the first technical time-out, but this was as far as they could go. VakifBank caught up at 9-9, and after 11-11 scored five in row to practically pre-determine the outcome. Lonneke Slöetjes was instrumental for her team’s speedy turnaround and it was her who had the honour of hammering the last ball of the season, closing the set, the match and the tournament at 25-17.



Zhu Ting was the best scorer of the match with 15 points for the winning side. Her teammates Lonneke Slöetjes and Gözde Kirdar added 14 and 12, respectively.






         


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