Luxembourg, February 26, 2020.  Rennes Volley 35 pleased their home fans with a straight-set victory over French compatriots Montpellier Castelnau UC in Wednesday’s first-leg quarterfinal match of the men’s CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup 2020. The return game in Castelnau is on March 4.

In the all-French clash, Rennes Volley 35 mastered a 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-22) victory over Montpellier Castelnau UC in front of 1,500 spectators who created a very nice atmosphere at the Colette Besson hall. Rennes’ Brazilians led the team to a comfortable 25-19 success in the first set. Leandro Nascimento dos Santos was in charge of the blocking, while Rafael Rodrigues de Araujo chipped in with three stuffs and five spikes. Montpellier put up a fight to stay close behind, but in the money time the home side ran off with five in a row to close the set. The two sides exchanged long serving runs in the second set, but once again it was Rennes’ blockers that made the difference towards another 25-19 win. After a very competitive beginning through 10-10, Montpellier managed to open a four-point lead in the third set, but the home side continued to block well and, capitalising on the increased number errors on the other side of the net, came back to emerge with a 25-22 close and a 3-0 win.



Rennes Volley 35 hammered out as many as 22 kill blocks over the three sets of the match with Leandro taking credit for as many as 10 towards an overall tally of 15 points. Rafael became the best scorer of the match with 18 points, including six stuffs, to his name. Joachim Panou top-scored 14 points for Montpellier.

Philippe Tuitoga, middle blocker of Rennes Volley 35: “We had a very strong game in reception and serving, and Leo made a lot of blocks, which was great!”

Javier Gonzalez, setter of Montpellier Castelnau UC: “The opponents served very well and had the audience behind them.”


For more info, go to the CEV Challenge Cup 2020 section.