03/12/2014 23:10
Zaksa use bunch of second lines but still claim home match with VaLePa SASTAMALA
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men
Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland, December 3, 2014. Even though they did not heavily rely on some of their best players – Pawel Zagumny, Dick Kooy and Jurii Gladyr – the home heroes of Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE could still claim a 3:1 home victory (27-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22) in their match with Finland’s VaLePa SASTAMALA on schedule for the 8th finals of the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup – Men.
The first set was a neck-to-neck race right from the start; Zaksa got a 2:0 lead after a block on Sjoerd Hoogendoorn, but the guests from Finland exploited some mistakes made by Kay van Dijk and Lucas Loh to flip the charts around (6:7). Only a few moments later Zaksa called for the first technical time-out leading by 8:7. The teams exchanged the lead back and forth as they both made mistakes (8:10, 15:13) until the score was levelled at 21 all. At this stage the head coach of Zaksa, Sebastian Swiderski, decided to let Zagumny join the actions and with his help the hosts claimed the opening set by 27-25.
The start of the second set was also very close and it was almost impossible to predict who was going to win in the end. Zaksa seemed to gradually impose their rule with the help of van Dijk and Lukasz Wisniewski (15:11). However, the Finns fired back and cut their deficit with Hoogendoorn being their main weapon and helped also by some mistakes made by Zaksa. An ace by their Dutch spiker gave VaLePa an 18:17 lead and strong serving by Olli Kunnari propelled SASTAMALA to the front again (24:22) before the Finns closed the set at 25-23.
The third set went through a series of ups and downs. Once again both teams made many mistakes, especially from the service line, there were blocks and sometimes the spikers sent the ball out of bounds. VaLePa was caught by surprise as Zaksa went up 7:5 but the Finns restored the balance at 10 and 15. After two blocks on van Dijk and Loh, VaLePa moved to the front at 20:18 and it looked like the Finns were going to cash this set as well. However, Zaksa mobilised their forces and two blocks on Hoogendoorn and Sakari Mäkinen brought the set to an end at 25-23.
The fourth set was controlled by Zaksa right from the start (3:1) and the Poles then stretched their lead to 11:8. They showed an excellent blocking system, especially with their youngster Krzysztof Rejno, and moved the score to 15:9, practically closing the set and the match as well before the final 25-22 was sealed by a tip of their Dutch setter Nimir Abdel-Aziz.
“It is a pity that we did not win the third set but nevertheless we are satisfied with the final score of this match,” said VaLePa head coach Ugis Krastins. “We will do our best to get our revenge in two weeks when we play the return match in Finland.”
“It was not our best performance but I had the opportunity to test some players who otherwise do not get much playing time also in the national league,” commented home mentor Swiderski. “I decided to go this way because we have some demanding and tough matches coming up in our championship. In the second match we will evidently go for another victory so that we can secure our promotion to the next round. We hope to repeat the same feat we achieved in the previous round of the competition when we played Tiikerit KOKKOLA.”
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