04/02/2014 20:06
Fenerbahce on a league of their own for Czech champions Agel PROSTEJOV
2014 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
Prostejov, Czech Republic, February 4, 2014. The opening match of the Challenge Round of the 2014 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women between Agel PROSTEJOV and Fenerbahce SK ISTANBUL was clearly orchestrated by the immensely strong Turkish team. The Czech champions fought bravely but eventually lost the game in straight sets (11-25, 21-25, and 15-25).
The self-confident visitors imposed their rule right at the beginning and kept total control of set 1. However, the home team improved at the start of set 2 and then managed to keep the pace of their star-studded opponent. Agel PROSTEJOV also spent quite a long time in the lead in the second set but at 19:18 the Czechs slowed down their tempo and let Fenerbahce regain control of the operations. The guests then showed world-class Volleyball to the delight also of the home fans for the remainder of the match.
“We were just not able to do better against such a high-quality team. The immensely strong club from Istanbul was out of our league. Despite this fact, at the beginning we showed too much respect to the hot favorite of this year’s CEV Cup. We were much weaker mainly in attacking where the guests absolutely had the upper hand. Their offensive play was much stronger, which is the main reason why they pocketed this match so easily,” says Miroslav Cada, the head coach of Agel PROSTEJOV.
“We were really nervous in set 1 and we did not follow the tactics defined by our head coach. Fortunately, after that our game became more relaxed, we improved in all fundamentals and started to enjoy the match. It is a pity we lost set 2 the way we did because we might have won this set. We have to take the chance in the return match next week in Istanbul,” comments Katie Carter, the US American opposite of Agel, shrugging her shoulders.
“I am very happy because we managed to claim a 3:0 win, which is exactly why we came here. We had a very good start and we were very strong throughout set 1. Then we experienced some problems, also because the opponent improved its reception. But we got over this slow-down, regained control of the game and cruised to an easy victory. The most important thing is the result which makes me feel happy,” says Marcello Abbondanza, the Italian-born head coach of Fenerbahce.
“We came to Prostejov to win the match without losing a set, if possible. That is exactly what we did, and also our performance was very good tonight, so we are happy. We started strongly, which helped us a lot, but then we lost our concentration and faced some problems in set 2. Otherwise, we did much better tonight and I feel great about the match,” adds Fenerbahce middle-blocker Christina Bauer.
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