12/12/2019 11:00
SAAREMAA VC make fans roar after home victory in #CEVChallengeCupM
CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup 2020 - Men
Luxembourg, December 12, 2019. On Wednesday night, while starting their second consecutive campaign in the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup, Estonia’s SAAREMAA VC sealed a 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 25-16) win over Israel’s Hapoel Yoav KFAR SABA in front of a sell-out crowd.
The fans are truly something special in Saaremaa and the Volleyball team is the very best sports ‘product’ from the biggest island in Estonia. The crowd (and their 10 drums!) is always behind the players since the start of the match, but without bothering the opposition in any way.
Sagi Baram, head coach of Hapoel, noticed this as well: “The crowd and the atmosphere was amazing! We can also have 1,000 fans back home, but they sit quietly. As for here, they acted the way that you would expect fans to behave. The match was quite one-sided as we were missing our main opposite. SAAREMAA VC were better in each element today and deserved to win. I still hope we can be stronger in Israel and manage to take it to the Golden Set.” Hapoel’s Kenya-born opposite Michael Chemos was unable to travel to Estonia due to visa problems.
The home team started well, winning the first set displaying much confidence (25-18). However, the Israeli team showed some good defence and their captain Evandro Dias de Souza scored nine points to lead Hapoel to a 25-23 win in the second set. Still, SAAREMAA VC looked dominant in the remainder of the match, eventually sealing a 3-1 victory. The two Brazilian captains led their teams in scoring – Evandro Dias de Souza scored 21 times for Hapoel as Daniel de Souza Maciel finished with 20 points for the home side.
Urmas Tali, head coach of SAAREMAA VC was not happy despite the win: “We lost our confidence in the second set and this influenced the rest of the match, where we especially struggled in attack. Some of our most experienced players were too shaky. There is a lot to improve if we want to advance from this round and in Israel Hapoel will count on Michael Chemos as well, their main opposite hitter. Of course, we try to analyse and improve and go for the win there as well.”
MONTPELLIER live up to their billing in Lucerne
Elsewhere, France’s heavy favourites MONTPELLIER Castelnau UC lived up to their status in the matchup with Lindaren Volley LUZERN of Switzerland. The visitors from France showed right from the go that they were due to set the tempo of the game before Tim Koepfli brought the home team back in contention in the first set. However, after drawing level at 14-14, the hosts could no longer pose a real threat and MONTPELLIER secured the first set win at 25-19. The home side were able to claim a four-point advantage in the second set, but when it came to the most important moments, MONTPELLIER used their experience to seal a 27-25 win. After that, the match was one-sided, with LUZERN scoring nine points only in the third set for MONTPELLIER to celebrate a 3-0 victory, which bodes well ahead of the rematch next week in the south of France.
ALMERIA celebrate successful European Cups comeback
After seven years away from the European Cups, Spain’s Unicaja Costa de ALMERIA found the best way to celebrate their comeback to the international stage as they secured a comprehensive victory in their home match with UVC Holding GRAZ of Austria (25-22, 25-23, 25-11). The home side exploited their physical prowess and height to provide their fans with something to cheer about. Pablo Koukartsev, the opposite hitter of ALMERIA, was the top scorer of the match with 12 points, followed by Guilherme Magnani Hage and Jean Pascal Diedhiou with 10 apiece. Lorenz Koraimann scored 10 times for the Austrians. The hosts had a three to four-point advantage in the first set with the 210 cm tall Diedhiou making his presence felt at the net. After briefly trailing at 5-7, the hosts broke away in the second set (21-15) with the help of Koukartsev and their setter Pei-Hung Huang. The visitors showed much character to fight back (23-22) but the home side eventually prevailed at 25-23. The third set, on the other hand, was very one-sided with an ace from Huang sealing a 25-11 victory – but the team advancing to the next round will emerge following next week’s re-match in Graz.
RENNES Volley 35 rout Swiss opponent
RENNES Volley 35 of France continued their successful campaign in the competition, storming to a 3-0 victory (25-16, 25-15, 25-17) over Volley SCHÖNENWERD of Switzerland. Philippe Tuitoga and Leandro Nascimento dos Santos were the major, leading force for RENNES in the first set, before Kamil Baranek scored three aces in a row in the second set to help his side double their lead, before the third was just a formality.
“They were not so much better,” said as a joke Dervisaj Bujar, the coach of the Swiss team. “Yes, it is a really good team while we have a young team, with just two pros, so this is another world for us. We tried to play hard, but we need experience and we do not have that. Moreover, we need professional players to be able to compete at this level.”
Nikola Matijasevic, head coach of RENNES Volley 35: “They missed their best player, but yes, we were better than them. My team took this game very seriously, which was important for us. I asked them to do so in the locker room and they followed my instructions.”
Pénzügyőr BUDAPEST first team to qualify for 8th Finals
Pénzügyőr BUDAPEST claimed also their second match with Omonia NICOSIA of Cyprus in straight sets, thus securing their spot in the 8th Finals. The team from the Hungarian capital looked dominant, with 25-11 and 25-17 set wins sealing their progression to the next round. At this stage, their head coach Zoltán Jókay decided to make some changes, so that even the younger players could be a part of the Challenge Cup experience. They produced a very solid game, eventually securing a 3-0 victory, the second in as many matches. Zoltán Kovács was the MVP of the match after scoring 13 points for the Hungarian team.
Zoltán Jókay: “The boys were able to shake off the excitement of the first match and we could achieve this victory. Based on the two matches, I think we deserve our place in the next round.”
Danish champions celebrate tiebreak home win
On Wednesday evening, the Danish reigning national champions, GENTOFTE Volley, played their first of two games against ACS Volei Municipal ZALAU. Despite playing the role of the underdogs, the Danish team delivered a strong performance and ended up taking the win in five sets (25-14, 25-22, 17-25, 23-25, 15-12) supported by a cheering home crowd. Tobias Hougs Kjær from GENTOFTE Volley was the best scorer with 22 points in the game.
“It is an amazing game for us to win – not only for the team and coaching staff, but for the entire club, who put a lot of energy in creating the right settings for the match,” said head coach Daniel Pawlikowski. “We knew it was a team with so many skilled veteran players but we also realised that we could put up a good fight. Our block/defence worked at an exceptional high level, and our pressure from the service line was stable throughout the whole game, pushing our opponents to constantly change their line-up,” he continued. “We were so close to ending the game in four, but they played really well the last few points of the fourth set. But I am really proud that the team managed to finish with a win in the end – it really shows the character of this group.”
The return match in Romania will be taking place on Wednesday, December 18.
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