Luxembourg, March 30, 2017. The 2017 edition of the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup is slowly but surely reaching its climax with the first round of the semi-finals contested on Wednesday night. In the men’s competition, Russia’s Fakel NOVY URENGOY and France’s CHAUMONT VB 52 emerged victorious from their respective home fixtures with Galatasaray HDI ISTANBUL and Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA. As for the women, BURSA BBSK rallied to a 3-1 away victory in Schwerin as Olympiacos PIRAEUS fully used the home-court advantage and extra boost provided by 2,000 raucous fans to record the same result in their matchup with European Cups rookies Yenisei KRASNOYARSK of Russia.

2017 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Men

Fakel NOVY URENGOY vs Galatasaray HDI ISTANBUL

Fakel NOVY URENGOY easily claimed on Wednesday the first round of their semi-final with Turkey’s Galatasaray HDI ISTANBUL. The 2016 silver medal winners from Russia rallied to a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-12, 25-18, 25-19) to claim a substantial edge ahead of the rematch, which is due to take place this coming Sunday in Istanbul. Fakel are willing to improve on the feat they achieved last season when they lost the Challenge Cup final to Italy’s Calzedonia VERONA.

“We have a very busy and demanding schedule at the moment, with one match after the other and little time for recovery but this is quite the usual routine for elite Volleyball players,” commented the head coach of Fakel, Camillo Placi. “As for the match with Galatasaray, my players stuck with the game plan for most of the time and remained focussed and concentrated from start to end, so I am satisfied with the performance and with the result as well.”

CHAUMONT VB 52 vs Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA

CHAUMONT VB 52 continued their triumphal march in the 2017 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Men as they rallied to a 3-1 home victory (25-21, 25-19, 28-30, 25-18) in the first round of the semi-finals with Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA. CHAUMONT VB 52 need to win two sets on Sunday in the Turkish capital in order to progress to the final stage of the competition.

Top scorer Stephen Boyer (20 points) commented: “Frankly speaking, I did expect the match would be a lot closer and we would be pushed more. However, we made the difference in service reception, and I think that our great performance in defence did somehow demoralise our opponents. It became more and more difficult for them to come back. As far as the ambiance is concerned, it was truly terrific! We will now see how far we can get. We still have to play the return match in Turkey and after that, we will have the playoffs of our national league. We want to make it as far as possible. There are six players on the court and another seven at the sidelines. This success is the result of a truly collective effort.”  

2017 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Women

SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN vs BURSA BBSK

Even though BURSA BBSK were the clear-cut favourites of the matchup with Germany’s SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN, these teams played almost at the same level as they took to the court before 1,776 fans at the Palmberg Arena for the first leg of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Women semi-finals. In the end, in what was a remake of the 2015 semis, the visitors from Turkey rallied to a 3-1 away victory (25-22, 30-28, 21-25, 25-20) to get an edge ahead of the second round taking place on Sunday, April 2 on home soil.
 
“In the important situations and especially towards the end of each set BURSA BBSK had one or two more experienced players, who made the difference. We were able to compete with BURSA BBSK in every set but in the end it was always the opponent who scored the big points,” said Felix Koslowski, head coach of SSC Palmberg SCHWERIN, after the match.

Olympiacos PIRAEUS vs. Yenisei KRASNOYARSK

Olympiacos PIRAEUS added on Wednesday night another chapter to their fairy tale in the 2017 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Women as they provided a sell-out crowd of 2,000 fans with something to cheer about by rallying to a 3-1 victory (25-15, 18-25, 25-17, 27-25) in their home matchup with Yenisei KRASNOYARSK of Russia. Olympiacos are now ‘only’ two sets away from making it to the ‘grand finale’ of the competition and they will be trying to achieve this historic feat on Sunday, April 2 when playing Yenisei in the second leg of the semi-finals.

Saskia Hippe, top scorer with 29 points and the real star player of Olympiacos: “I think we did a very good job and I am happy with the result. Our setter suffered an injury, but the second setter came in and she did a very good job. We did stick together and never stopped fighting. It was a lot of fun to play before this crowd, they were always behind us and amazing in the way they supported us.”

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