19/04/2013 17:05
Atom Trefl to play DABROWA GORNICZA in final act of Poland's national league
News from the clubs
Sopot, Poland, April 19, 2013. Atom Trefl SOPOT played their best game of the season to edge Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNA – winner of the 2013 CEV Volleyball Cup – in the fifth and last match of the semifinal series in Poland’s national league. As they try to follow up on their first title from last year, the girls from SOPOT will be playing Tauron MKS DABROWA GORNICZA in the Championship series.
The semis were a remake of last year’s final stage of the national league and for some people such games were to be considered as a sort of anticipated final. The series did eventually live up to the expectations as it was prolonged to five matches. Bank BPS Fakro had claimed the first clash with the score of 3:1 before losing the second 2:3 to Atom Trefl. The next couple of matches were played at Ergo Arena in Gdansk with Atom Trefl seizing the night in the third fixture (3:1) by displaying very solid and consistent Volleyball. However, things changed completely in the fourth round where MUSZYNA – anchored by 31 points scored by Croatia’s Sanja Popovic – called for a fifth game by wrapping it up at the tie-break. This meant that the final round was going to take place in Muszyna and there Atom Trefl played their best to score a 3:1 away win and make it to the final stage of the national league for the third consecutive season. Atom Trefl setter and captain Izabela Belcik marshaled her side with great mastery adding up 6 blocks to the count of her team while Australian Rachel Rourke top scored with 26 points.
“I just would like to thank all players for the motivation and energy they showed tonight” Belcik said after that victory. “We did our best to stay focused and did so. We had nothing to lose and decided to quickly reset our minds and concentrate only on the next points. I think this attitude helped us seize the night and make it to the final. We have already guaranteed a silver medal but I promise we will fight for gold as we did last year”.
In the Championship series – to be played with the formula “best of five” – SOPOT will cross the ways of DABROWA GORNICZA, winner of this year’s national cup, while MUSZYNA will try to settle for bronze playing the likes of Aluprof BIELSKO-BIALA.
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