Maaseik, Belgium, October 25, 2011. The home guys of Noliko MAASEIK claimed tonight a classy Volleyball match against Turkey’s Arkas IZMIR to the delight of some 2'150 fans that were in attendance in the splendid “Lotto Dôme”. MAASEIK seized the night with the score of 3:1 (23-25, 27-25, 25-20, 25-21) to claim the provisional second place in Pool A with Iraklis THESSALONIKI on top with 5 points.
Noliko went up by the first technical time-out (8:6) and afterwards there were quite many errors from the serving area, hence moving the score to 20:22 for the guests who finalized their quest with an attack of middle blocker Burak Hascan (23-25). The second set was initially controlled by Arkas (6:8, 12:14, 14:16) with Canadian Justin Duff and Hascan being the most consistent scorers. However, Noliko fought bravely and stormed back to get a first set ball at 24:23. Latvian Hermans Egleskalns – signed this past summer by the Belgians – eventually pocketed the provisional 1:1 at 27-25.
The team around head coach Vital Heynen displayed some excellent play also in set 3 wrapping it up at 25-20. Supported by their always passionate fans and fired up by the great atmosphere in the sports hall, Noliko MAASEIK dictated the tempo also in set 4 (19:14) but Arkas clawed back to force Heynen into a time-out as the score stood at 22:20. This was a good move as Noliko regained control of the operations (24:20) and after a first match ball was fended off by Arkas, a serving error of the Turks sealed the final 25-21 for MAASEIK.
“After the difficult game we played last week in Greece tonight this was a very good performance from our side” said setter Yannick van Harskamp. “We had to work hard to take home the second set but after that Arkas did no longer play at its usual level”.
Their mentor Glenn Hoag was evidently disappointed: “We did not use all the chances we had in the second set. Our opponents gained confidence and played very well in set 3 and 4” he concluded.