22/03/2015 11:26
Atomic Girls hope to extend terrific winning streak to CEV Cup semis
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
Sopot, Poland, March 22, 2015. Poland’s PGE Atom Trefl SOPOT are on a terrific winning streak of 15 straight matches and will be hoping to extend it on Tuesday night once they host Turkey’s Galatasaray Daikin ISTANBUL for the first round of the semis in the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women.
A week ago SOPOT claimed their first historic title in Poland’s national cup edging Chemik POLICE in the final match played in Kedzierzyn-Kozle and after that caught a brilliant start also in the Playoffs of the national league winning the first round of the quarterfinals with Budowlani LODZ by 3:1. The Atomic Girls lacked consistency in that match as they looked tired from the hectic schedule they have been going through. Though this is not an easy situation and there is no time to rest and regenerate, none in the team is complaining.
“We are extremely happy to play in the semis because this means that we are one of the four best teams in this year’s CEV Volleyball Cup. I hope that everything will be fine with our health and we will be able to deliver a good performance and fight equally with Galatasaray, even though we know that it is one of the best teams in Europe right now,” says Izabela Belcik, PGE Atom Trefl team captain.
The coach of Atom Trefl, Lorenzo Micelli, can be pleased with what his team has accomplished and such winning streak results from the fact that each of the 12 players on the roster has had the chance to prove herself on the court and to contribute to the team’s success. “Looking back at our last matches, I think that we have showed that there is no first or second line-up. For example Falyn Fonoimoana joined the actions right in the middle of the game with Chemik and she played a terrific match. As a team, we rely on each player who joins the game. We are very close, so we do care about each other,” explains Zuzanna Efimienko, who was chosen as the best middle blocker in Poland’s national cup final.
“During every training session and each game we keep in mind what we want to reach and what our goals are. So hopefully this balanced roster will help us achieve them,” adds Maja Tokarska.
The players of SOPOT are extra motivated because they seem to like such live-or-die bouts. After the Final Four tournament of the national cup and the start of the Playoffs, the next stop in their journey is the semis of the CEV Volleyball Cup. Galatasaray Daikin ISTANBUL will be a hard nut to crack especially after they edged in the previous round Russia’s Omichka OMSK REGION, a team that had started the season in the elite CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. In earlier stages of the CEV Volleyball Cup, Galatasaray already got the upper hand against another Polish team, Tauron MKS DABROWA GORNICZA.
However, SOPOT have also an interesting record to boast as they first came back from an away loss to Italy’s Prosecco Doc-Imoco CONEGLIANO and then routed Romania’s Stiinta BACAU in the Challenge Round, i.e. yet another side that had starred in this year’s CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. Coach Micelli sounds therefore quite confident and not too scared by the Turkish armada. “I have been coaching Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL for many years, and so I know the team of Galatasaray pretty well,” he says. “The current standing of the Turkish national league shows that they are the fourth power this season in that country. In my opinion, if I have to compare their value with our domestic opponents here in Poland, I believe that they are definitely stronger than Chemik POLICE. But it does not mean that they are out of our reach. We just have to play truly, but really truly our best if we want to win with them,” he concludes.
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