Piacenza, Italy, January 28, 2015.  Before the match between Nordmeccanica PIACENZA and RC CANNES, both teams had already qualified for the playoffs of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women, and played this last game of Pool E with no particular pressure.  At the end the more inspired home side won by 3:0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-18), but the French team also played a really good game.  Despite piling up more ranking points than CANNES, the Italians finished third in the pool because of the fewer victories, but their record was sufficient to leave them in the competition for the next stages.

Nordmeccanica began the match with a lot of conviction, dominating the first two sets.  In the first set, the game began very well for Nordmeccanica from the first point.  Alessandro Chiappini’s squad dominated, especially due to the points from Indre Sorokaite, to win by 25-16.  In the second set, RC CANNES continued to suffer under Nordmeccanica’s pressure.  Lise Van Hecke, Indre Sorokaite and Chiara Di Julio played well, while the French team was struggling to block. An ace by Di Iulio opened a 7-point gap at 20-13.  The visitors tried to respond, recovered partially for 16-20, but then gave in at 18-25.  In the third set, there was a reaction from Yan Fang’s team, taking an 8-6 lead at the first technical time-out.  But Nordmeccanica showed great inspiration and with a great performance, especially by Van Hecke, went 15-13 ahead.  Then it was Victoria Vargas time.  She scored a spectacular point for 19-17 and the home heroines closed the match at another 25-18 without difficulty, taking revenge for losing the first match in Cannes.

Sorokaite was the top scorer of the match with 15 points.

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