03/04/2018 23:47
Eczacibasi ruthless in first #CEVCupW final matchup with Belarusian sensation
2018 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
Minsk, Belarus, April 3, 2018. Turkey’s Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL are only two sets away from securing the title of the 2018 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women following their 3-1 away victory (25-14, 25-21, 22-25, 25-11) at the expense of Minchanka MINSK in the first round of the finals. The repeat of this matchup will be taking place next Tuesday, April 10 at Burhan Felek Volleyball Hall in Istanbul.
• A record-breaking crowd of 3,200 fans attended the match at Uruchje sports hall in Minsk.
• Minchanka MINSK could not find a way to stop the best players of Eczacibasi, Tijana Bošković and Jordan Larson. The hosts struggled in reception and despite taking many risks with their serve, their strategy did not bring the desired results.
• Hanna Hryshkevich was the main target of Eczacibasi – she received / passed the ball as many as 49 times throughout the match.
• Minchanka MINSK tried to catch up when Eczacibasi used their rising star Hande Baladin in the second and third sets – but the hosts eventually had to accept a 1-3 loss.
Marco Aurelio Motta, head coach of Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL: “I want to congratulate Minchanka on making the final of the CEV Cup. I think this is a great achievement for Belarusian Volleyball. They beat some very strong teams to make it here. We played extremely well for the first set, making only a very few mistakes. Minchanka, on the other hand, played especially well with their middle blockers and we had problems to stop them. We are happy to travel back to Istanbul with this victory in our pockets. We played with the right consistency only in the first and last sets, but failed to reach our top level in the remainder of the match. We were nevertheless able to win the second set and we are happy with that.”
Viktar Hancharou, head coach of Minchanka MINSK: “To sum up what all happened tonight, I would say that Eczacibasi does not forgive any mistakes. Unfortunately, we made too many mistakes and the whole match did not develop according to our plan. We improved in the third set but we made too many service errors and we paid a high price for these mistakes. We could beat our previous opponents because they made mistakes too – but Eczacibasi simply did not and played very smoothly. Bošković was extremely effective with her attacks and Larson did a great job in reception. These players made the difference and combined with our own mistakes prevented us from playing as we wanted.”
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