17/12/2013 20:50
Czech champions PROSTEJOV nearly cause sensation in home match with Eczacibasi
2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women
Prostejov, Czech Republic, December 17, 2013. The match for the sixth round of action in Pool D of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women between Agel PROSTEJOV and Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL was an absolutely close battle. The hosts were on a good path to victory but then the hot favorite managed to step up and made the home heroines suffer a 1:3 defeat (25-17, 26-28, 19-25, and 23-25). That means the Turkish team finished the prelims without losing a single match in this year’s competition though they dropped their first set since the beginning of the season. Eczacibasi moves on to the Playoffs 12 while Agel PROSTEJOV will continue their European campaign in the Challenge Round of the CEV Volleyball Cup.
Especially the start of the match was quite surprising because the Czech champions clearly claimed the opening set and in set 2 they were up 11:8. However, after that the guests found their game and swung the score in their favor, but they were also pretty lucky because the final parts of two sets were very tight. The Czechs fought with glowing hearts and they eventually turned into the first side to claim a set against Eczacibasi in the Champions League this year, and they might have done even better.
“I have to praise our ladies for their great performance tonight, but it is a pity we lost. We could have won at least one of the two close sets and the match would have been decided at the tie-break,” said their head coach Miroslav Cada.
“We served really strong at the beginning of the match and we managed to put pressure on the opponents; that is why we managed to stay in the lead for a long time. In the middle of set 2 the guests stepped up and turned the score around but we did not let them cruise away” added Agel PROSTEJOV middle-blocker Sonja Borovinsek.
“Our schedule has been very demanding in the past weeks and therefore we did not deliver a very good performance tonight, but I am happy because we fought hard and sealed the match for ourselves,” said Eczacibasi mentor Lorenzo Micelli.
“We did not perform very well tonight but what really matters is the result and we finally managed to score a 3:1 win. Now we are looking forward to the Playoffs” concluded the captain of Eczacibasi VitrA, Esra Gümüs Kirici.
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