16/01/2014 22:29
MACERATA routs PIACENZA to claim first round of Italian derby
2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Macerata, Italy, January 16, 2014. The Palasport Fontescodella was sold-out on Thursday night – 2,200 fans were in attendance but many more were ready to join – as the hosts of Lube Banca Marche MACERATA cruised to a straight win over their compatriots of Copra Elior PIACENZA (25-22, 25-21, and 25-23) in the first round of the Italian derby scheduled for the Playoffs 12 of the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men.
It was a great game for the home side that played superbly in offense with Ivan Zaytsev and Bartosz Kurek top scoring with 17 and 16 points respectively, but also the Serbian duo composed by Dragan Stankovic (9) and Marko Podrascanin (6) performed really strong.
The team mentored by Alberto Giuliani got control of the operations in the opening set after the second technical time-out (16:16) and claimed a good margin via good serving and blocking by Marko Podrascanin. As the guests made some mistakes in attack, the score moved up to 22-18 for MACERATA and the local heroes eventually closed the set only a few moments later (25-22).
The course of the game did not change in the second set with PIACENZA replacing Denys Kaliberda with Hristo Zlatanov after the Ukrainian-born wing-spiker was blocked again by Podrascanin for the provisional 14:9; with Ivan Zaytsev and Bartosz Kurek standing out in offense and great reception and defense actions by libero Hubert Henno MACERATA dominated the scene in set 2 with Italy’s national team star Zaytsev scoring 6 points in this section of the game (25-21).
The match was more balanced in the third set especially as PIACENZA improved their efficiency in attack. The guests were leading 14:10 before MACERATA came back thanks to good serving by Zaytsev (16:16). Then the teams walked together point by point, until a block by Podrascanin on Kaliberda got a small break for the home side (23:21). It was then Zaytsev to kill the last spike for the 25-23 that sealed a 3:0 home victory for MACERATA.
“My team showed a great attitude tonight and approached the match in the right way” said Lube Banca Marche head coach Alberto Giuliani after the game. “This is a very important victory but our qualification to the Playoffs 6 is still not guaranteed. We do expect a tough game next week in Piacenza; everything is still open: in the Playoffs 12 you always have to play two great matches to progress to the next stage and for the time being, we only won the first round.”
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