22/01/2020 22:30
Minchanka rout Bosnian champions to delight home crowd in Minsk
CEV Volleyball Cup 2020 - Women
Minsk, Belarus, January 22, 2020. Minsk hosted a true Volleyball party on Wednesday night where the local fans had been waiting since December 13 for a home match of Minchanka – i.e. since their favourites had played Uralochka-NTMK EKATERINBURG in a matchup of the Russian Superleague. As many as 1,100 supporters came together to support Minchanka and they eventually celebrated a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-8, 25-20, 25-16) for the home side in the first round of their 8th Final CEV Cup fixture with ZOK Bimal-Jedinstvo BRČKO of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Minchanka caught a flying start to the match scoring ten times in a row (10-0) and the visitors could claim their first point only after Katsiaryna Sakolchyk spiked off the bounds. However, the Bosnian team never recovered from such a huge gap and Minchanka stormed to a landslide 25-8 set win.
Viktoryia Siakretava, whom many know as a successful Beach Volleyball player, made a superb debut in the European Cups, top scoring with 15 points. She was the main attacking force for the home side and it seemed like the visitors were not prepared to deal with her at all.
Minchanka scored 10 blocks vs. only one for the Bosnians, with Nadzeya Stoliar standing out with four stuffs and five successful spikes.
Smail Pezerovic, head coach of ZOK Bimal-Jedinstvo: “We know that Minchanka is a really good team and able to play a good game, so I use this opportunity to express my apologies to the spectators who came to watch good volleyball. Today we did not perform at a good level, so Minchanka could deservedly win. It is ok, but as I said, I am sorry that so many people came here and that we travelled so far to have a game like that. I hope that we can fight back for the next match in Bosnia and will try to play much better, because we are able to do so and we know how to play better, but probably tonight, there were some kind of pressure or tiredness from the trip, I do not know whatever else. Once we get home, we will analyse everything and do our best to try to show a much better performance in the return match.”
Viktar Hancharou, head coach of Minchanka MINSK: “Today I am pleased with the result, but the quality of the performance still needs to improve. The first set was quite successful, then we relaxed and the team from Bosnia tuned in to the game; there was more of an intrigue, but practically everything was still under our control. I am happy for the result, but we need to work more to improve.”
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