05/11/2014 00:53
Zaksa open CEV Cup campaign with home victory over Finnish ‘Tigers’
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men
Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland, November 5, 2014. Poland’s Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE started their European adventure in this year’s CEV Volleyball Cup with a 3:1 home victory over Finland’s Tiikerit KOKKOLA (25-22, 25-22, 12-25, 25-21) waiting now for the return match coming up in two weeks.
“We are nevertheless pleased with our performance and with the ambiance we found here in Poland,” said the young coach of Tiikerit, Tommi Tiilikainen. “It’s not just about the weather,” he joked, “but I am happy with the way my players fought tonight. I can only praise them for what they have done in this match.”
Zaksa played without their starting setter and real icon Pawel Zagumny and this affected their performance, especially in the third set, where the home heroes made a lot of mistakes. “Pawel is tired and I wanted to use this match as an opportunity to use our second lines,” says Zaksa head coach Sebastian Swiderski. The first two sets ended with the same score (25-22); Zaksa opened the first set with a 7-3 run but after excellent serving by Tiikerit’s best player Olli-Pekka Ojansivu, the Poles were trailing 12:14. An ace by their Dutch setter Nimir Abdel-Aziz got Zaksa back on track and after levelling the score, the home guys cruised to the final 25-22. In the second set the score remained tight up to 18 all and after that with the help of Dominik Witczak, Zaksa brought it home for another 25-22 and the provisional 2:0. The third set was literally one-sided with the Finnish ‘Tigers’ opening with an 8-3 run before they stretched their lead to 13:8 and 22:12. Zaksa just gave up and started focusing already on the fourth set where Witczak was the real ‘man of the match’ for the Poles. Even though Tiikerit tried to respond with Romans Sauss, Matti Hietanen and Ojansivu, the hosts moved the score to 21:17 and closed the match with an attack killed by Brazilian Lucas Loh.
In order to make the next stage of the competition Zaksa have to take at least two sets from the return match scheduled for November 19 in Finland.
Click here for more info including detailed stats of the match
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