30/06/2019 18:53
Romania complete clean sweep of Silver European League titles
CEV Volleyball European Silver League 2019
Alexandria, Romania, June 30, 2019. Romania claimed on Sunday night their first title in the CEV Volleyball European Silver League after recording a 3-0 win in their home matchup with Greece (25-21, 25-23, 25-21) to go with the 3-2 success they achieved earlier this week in Piraeus. This completes a clean sweep of the Silver League top honours for Romania after their women’s team had edged Slovenia in their grand finale. As a result, Romania will contest the 2020 edition of the European Golden League, replacing the lowest ranked team from this year’s competition.
Romania’s middle blocker Mihai Gheorghita was the top scorer of the game for the eventual winners, chipping in with 15 points, while Nikos Zoupani registered 18 for Greece.
Gheorghita and outside hitter Rares Ionut Balean became the dominant figures of the first set having altogether scored 11 points. After claiming a small margin at 18-15 when the opposite hitter of Greece, Zoupani, scored a few points with strong attacks, the Romanians were able to hold on to it to finish the first set at 25-21 in their favour.
Greece started very determined right from the early stages of the second set with Zoupani and middle blocker Georgios Petreas paving the way towards an 8-6 lead for the visitors. After that, the score remained very close up to 21-21. At this stage, Greece coach Dimitrios Andreopoulos called a time-out in an effort to provide his players with a moment to regroup. The hosts, however, sealed a 25-23 win following a service mistake made by Theodoros Voulkidis.
In the third set, the two teams played a close game again, much to the delight of the local fans, with a few spectacular rallies (7-7, 10-10, 13-13, 17-17). Romania scored some important points, once again by means of their middle blocker Mihai Gheorghita’s attacks and the blocks killed by Razvan Mihalcea. The sensation seemed about to materialise, as only a few points separated Romania from winning the match and the Silver League title. The hosts continued to deliver a stellar performance, and with the help of another two very good actions by new entry Ciprian Matei and outside hitter Robert Aciobanitei, the third set finished at 25-21.
Rares Ionut Balean, MVP of the finals, was obviously happy with the achievement: “I think the best team won tonight. It is a great achievement for our team since we were participating in this competition for the first time. It was a perfect training for the next important competition we will contest – the CEV EuroVolley 2019.”
Mihai Gheorghita, middle blocker of Romania: “I am very satisfied with the result and with the level of our performance. We needed this win in order to prepare for the European Championship in France. Our opponents gave us a hard time but they made too many mistakes to be able to pose a real threat to us.”
Click here for further information.
|