Treviso, Italy, April 22, 2017.  In the second match to be held at the Palaverde VILLORBA in north-eastern Italy, the home team took to the court against the Russian team of Dinamo MOSCOW.  Just like last season in the Champions League semi-final, it was Italy against Russia, in Italy, and whilst seemingly up against it it was the Italian team that came through with Imoco Volley winning 3-1 (25-18, 25-15, 15-25, 27-25).

For more regular updates follow @CEVolleyballcl (where we had a special guest assisting us) or search for the event hashtag #CLF4Treviso

Set 1

With a crowd of over 3,830, the home team started strongly and led at the first technical time-out (8-6), their domination continued and they even extended their lead by the second technical time-out to 16-12.  With the momentum, Imoco Volley pushed on and whilst the Russian side were starting to find their stride, the lead was maintained.  With the home team libero Monica De Gennaro dominating the back court area, she enabled her team to have a consistent pass and their attach flourished as a result.

The set ended 25-18 after a long and spectacular rally with the home team seeming to be in complete control of the match, and Dinamo MOSCOW not knowing what had hit them

Set 2

The second set mirrored the first in many ways with the home team completely at ease in their normal surroundings.  The hosts dominated, with their setter Skorupa distributing the ball effortlessly to her attackers. With the score again at 8-6 at the first technical, their lead grew from there (16-10) and they never looked back.  Anna Danesi scored the perfect 100% with 4 kills while all of her other fellow attackers were taking points as well. The set finished 25-15.

Set 3

This was the set where the traveling team from Russia appeared to wake up and get a grip on the match that they were in.  Despite being down by two sets, they pulled together and showed some excellent fight.  While Goncharova only scored 25% of spikes in both the first and second set, in the third she was back closer to normality with 67%.  By the second technical timeout it was the Russian team who were 16-9 up and they saw this through to take the 3rd set to 15 points.

Whilst they lost the set, the Imoco setter Katarzyna Skorupa produced one moment of brilliance with this shot:

Set 4

This set started with the home crowd realising that this was probably their best chance for a ticket to the final. Both teams pushed hard in what proved to be the longest set of the day. Robinson, Ortolani and Fawcett all had fairly equal shares of the attack and all were finding spaces around the Russian block.  It ended in favour of the home team with a 27-25 victory and with it a place in tomorrows final.

Throughout the match, the CEV media team were joined by injured Imoco star Robin de Kruijf who was providing a live commentary on Twitter (@CEVolleyballCL).  Then after the match she interviewed some of her teammates asking them about the game:

Kelsey Robinson: "We just played really, really hard and I think when it got difficult and things weren't going our way we came together even more. And this was really powerful. Coming into the game, we had no expectations, we were just ready to play. For someone who was just looking at the score it might look easy, but from our side it really wasn't."

Serena Ortolani: "I am really happy about the result. My team is very strong and we kept pushing each other. Our fans were great, they were our seventh player today."

Nicole Fawcett: "I'm just happy we won and we really miss Robin de Kruijf and Sami Bricio, so this victory is for them."

Davide Mazzanti: "We played very well in the first two sets, I’m very satisfied because it was not so easy to play against a team like Dinamo MOSCOW. When the situation was 2-0 for us something changed. They improved their hits and we had difficulties trying to find other solutions.  In my opinion the fourth set was fantastic, a great Volleyball show for all the people in the hall. All the girls were fantastic, both teams played at the maximum of their respective abilities. Tomorrow will be very difficult, VakifBank are a great team and I’m happy because I’ll play against Guidetti, a head coach that I owe so much respect to; a great Italian coach."