21/01/2014 22:25
Swiss purple girls make Playoffs 6 after second victory over Italy’s champions
2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women
Piacenza, Italy, January 21, 2014. Italy’s champions RebecchiNMeccanica PIACENZA caught a good start in their return game of the Playoffs 12 with Switzerland’s Volero ZÜRICH but they eventually lost – as they had done last week – in four sets (25-22, 18-25, 20-25, and 19-25). Actually Volero had already claimed their ticket to the Playoffs 6 after the third set for PIACENZA was no longer in the position to call for the golden set even if they had won the match. This means rookies PIACENZA – who had topped the charts in preliminary Pool B – are bidding farewell to the 2014 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women whereas Volero will continue their campaign and play in the next round the winner of the Russian derby starring Dinamo KAZAN and Dinamo MOSCOW.
RebecchiNMeccanica showed their determination to fight back after last week’s defeat in Zurich and they set the tempo of the game all the way through the opening set (8:6, 17:15, and 25-22 in the end). The hosts were paced by their Dutch spiker Floortje Meijners but Volero responded very well in the second set moving the score up to 8:5 and 16:11 at the first and second technical time-out respectively. RebecchiNMeccanica showed – like last week – some difficulties in attack while the Swiss champions displayed excellent Volleyball to eventually draw the score in sets (25-18).
After a very close start with PIACENZA calling for the first technical time-out at 8:7, Volero broke away in the third set with six straight points to make it 13:8; Volero still had a five-point lead by the second mandatory stop (16:11) and with their mistakes down to a minimum, they scored all the important points to seal the 25-20 whereby they cashed their qualification to the Playoffs 6.
The fourth set did not have any importance but Volero played with great enthusiasm to finish the game with the same score as last Thursday at the Saalsporthalle.
Once more Volero was paced by Ukraine’s Olesia Rykhliuk – the top scorer in this edition of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – who this time registered 18 points while Cuban-born Kenia Carcaces added another 17 to the count of the Swiss champions. Nadja Ninkovic and Karla Klaric also finished the game in double digits with 10 apiece. Floortje Meijners top scored for PIACENZA with 13 while Robin de Kruijf and Lucia Bosetti chipped in with 11 and 10.
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