Macerata, Italy, November 20, 2014. Cucine Lube TREIA cruised to a speedy 3:0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-20) to down PARIS Volley and gain its first victory and the second position in the current standings in Pool E of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men.
The Italians totally dominated the match with the only exception being the first set, when the score remained very close up to 22-22. Then the attack of Polish spiker Bartosz Kurek (4 points and 80% of efficiency in offense) brought the break for 24-22 to the Italian champions, who closed the set with a kill block by Dragan Stankovic. Cucine Lube then asserted its supremacy in sets 2 and 3 with a great show contributed by the blocks of Marko Podrascanin and Dragan Stankovic and the defense of libero Hubert Henno to the delight of some 2,000 spectators. The hosts quickly cruised to 11-8 and then 22-16 with great attacks from the back row and 3 blocks before they finished the second set at 25-19, with 6 points being contributed by opposite Giulio Sabbi, and 5 added by Kurek, who scored a total of 11 points with an incredible 92% success rate in attack. The same scenario unfolded in set 3 - 12-9, 20-14 and 25-20 to the hosts. As in each of the first two sets, the Italians scored 3 more blocks in the third as well versus only one for the French team in the entire match.
After the match Lube’s head coach Alberto Giuliani was very satisfied with his guys: “I am very happy for the victory and the second place in the pool,” he said. “As I already said many times, our pool is the strongest of the entire competition and from now on every lost point can make the difference for the qualification goal. Tonight PARIS Volley showed a very good performance, especially in serving, but my team played some fantastic volleyball, and I want to say ‘thanks’ to my players for that.”
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