Dresden, Germany, March 1, 2014. The Russian team of Uralochka-NTMK EKATERINBURG will face Turkish Fenerbahce SK. ISTANBUL in the final of the 2014 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women. After losing to DRESDNER SC its first semifinal leg by 2:3, the squad of Nikolai Karpol won the second leg at Margon Arena in Germany by 3:1 (25-19, 19-25, 25-18, 25-23) in front of 3000 spectators. The Russian side carried conviction to its individual skills, match tactics and experience. Although the DRESDNER SC players missed the historical chance to make it to the final, they played a great match and just barely lost to their strong opponent.
Both teams started concentrated in the first set. After some little mistakes of DRESDNER SC the Russian team could step to an 8-5 lead. The local heroines came back to an 11-11 but Uralochka-NTMK did a good job in attack and block and ran away again to 16-13 at the second technical time-out. Team DRESDNER SC had some problems with reception to help Viktoria Chaplina finish the first set at 25-19 after 26 minutes.
The second set was level till the standing of 10-10. But then the German side managed to open a gap between themselves and their opponent. DRESDNER SC put a lot of pressure with its serves, attacks and blocks to a lead of 18:14. The German runner-up used this benefit to win the set with setter Mareen Apitz converting the first set point for a 25-19 final score.
In the third set the German team started a little bit lacking in concentration and went in a backlog with 0-3. The visiting team put a lot of pressure in serving and attacking and did a good job in blocking as well. They were in the lead at both technical time-outs - by 8-5 and 16-9. The players of DRESDNER made a few mistakes and the Russian team won the third set by 25-18.
In the fourth leg the German team played their best and were in front at 16-13 and 19-15. At the end of the set, however, DRESDNER SC made some mistakes while the opponents used all their experience. After a mistake in attack from the home team Uralochka-NTMK converted the first match point to win the set by 25-23 and the match by 3:1 after 102 minutes of play.
Irina Zaryazhko became the best scorer of the match, contributing 24 points to Uralochka’s victory. Lisa Izquierdo was DRESDNER’s most prolific player with 16 points.
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Uralochka will entertain Fenerbahce at home in the first leg of the final clash to be played on March 26 and will travel to Istanbul for the second leg on March 29.