20/10/2011 22:55
Cristian Savani and his bombs stop Russian train to claim first win for MACERATA
2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League
Macerata, Italy, October 20, 2011. Lube Banca Marche MACERATA celebrated tonight a splendid debut in the 2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League by defeating the winner of last year’s Russian Cup, Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK 3:1 (19-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-22) in Pool E.
The Italians – who are joining Europe’s most elitist competition for the sixth time in their history – claimed a very balanced match, by standing out with their blocks (11 in total) and aces (8). “This is a very important victory” commented head coach Alberto Giuliani, “and being the first match of the League Round this is what really counts, especially because it was pretty tough to swift the game to our side after losing the first set”.
Lokomotiv had indeed set the pace in the opening of the match, especially with their aces; as his guys were trailing down 17:22, coach Giuliani stopped the game and substituted spiker Jiri Kovar with the captain of Italy’s national team, Cristian Savani, but it was too late, as Lokomotiv sealed the final 19-25 after an error of Igor Omrcen.
The score stayed extremely close in set 2 with none of the teams claiming a margin of more than two points up to 17 all; helped by a block of Ryan Millar and an error of Kovar, Lokomotiv stamped a 3-0 break (17:20) and it looked like the Russians were going for the 0:2 as Savani replaced Kovar again but this time he scored 4 aces, bringing MACERATA back on track with the help of the stellar defense of libero Jean-François Exiga before Dragan Stankovic aced for the 25-21.
With Serbian middle blockers Marko Podrascanin and Stankovic on fire, MACERATA dominated the scene in set 3. The same plot unfolded in the fourth set where Lokomotiv made a lot of mistakes and suffered the pressure put by the Italian spikers, with Igor Omrcen eventually top scoring for the home side with 23 points while opposite Filipp Voronkov totaled 11 for Lokomotiv.
“We have played a good match up to the end of the second set but then the aces of Savani changed the course of the game” commented Russian mentor Andrey Voronkov.
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