Poitiers, France, October 27, 2011. Stade Poitevin POITIERS sky-rocketed to the top of the standings in Pool D after two rounds after claiming the match against Germany’s Generali UNTERHACHING 3:1 (18-25, 25-21, 28-26, 25-23) that wound up leg 2 of the 2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League.
After a very close start (4:4, 8:8) Generali got gradually control of the operations in the opening set with a very solid reception and the mastery of setter Branislav Skladany (8:13). Captain Max Günthör played with good consistency in attack as well as in blocking, with his team steadily but convincingly pulling way (11:18) before POITIERS got briefly back on track with the contribution of Nicolas Maréchal in defense (15:18). However, Generali wrapped it up at 18-25 with a splendid block of Christian Dünnes to stop Maréchal.
 
Generali was sidelined by the absence of libero Sebastian Prüsener starting from the second set as he was feeling sick and left the court to be “exceptionally” replaced by Slovak wing spiker Robert Hupka in this position. Moreover, the efficiency of the German attackers – especially of Christian Dünnes – dropped down while Milos Culafic was absolutely outstanding on the French side of the net. With some blocks POITIERS cruised past (17:13) helped also by the German defense that gradually faltered and Maréchal sealed the second set for the hosts at 25-21.

With the good tempo provided by Denis Kaliberda Generali UNTERHACHING started strongly in set 3 (2:4), but the game unfolded with many ups and downs for both sides. With a 6-0 break – including two aces of Maréchal – Stade Poitevin POITIERS got full control of the game (16:9) but Generali bounced back again for the 22:21, before a very close final rush ended up in favor of the home guys (28-26).

The fourth set was another very close affair with Kaliberda and Günthör taking Generali by the hand before Maréchal fired up the comeback of the home guys from 11:13 to 17 all. A couple of aces stamped by Jérémy Audric paved the way for Stade Poitevin that eventually sealed the match with a 3:1 to take the first position in the standings of Pool D after two rounds.

“We did not play well but Stade Poitevin has got a superb player, Maréchal, and we were not able to stop him tonight” said German head coach Mihai Paduretu.
“We are improving day by day and we have to be happy with this result, especially as tonight we defeated a side which is a very tough competitor in our quest to make it to the Playoffs 12” added local mentor Olivier Lecat.