22/01/2015 18:42
Eczacibasi back on track with home victory over Polish rookies
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women
Istanbul, Turkey, January 22, 2015. After suffering a real setback last week losing in three sets to Switzerland’s Volero ZÜRICH, Turkey’s Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL got back on track cruising to a 3:1 victory over Poland’s rookies Impel WROCLAW (25-19, 21-25, 25-10, 25-16) to cement their first place in Pool D of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women waiting for the next round of matches coming up next week.
After losing the first rally of the match, Eczacibasi responded by scoring four in a row and then moved the score up to 7:2; still WROCLAW were able to cut their deficit (7:6) before Jordan Larson-Burbach ended the positive series of the guests to call for the first technical time-out (8:6). A couple of points scored by Monika Ptak and Katarzyna Mroczkowska levelled the score at 11 all; Eczacibasi responded by cashing four in a row (15:11) and this forced Impel’s head coach Tore Aleksandersen into a time-out. Two points by Mroczkowska narrowed the gap down for the Poles (15:13) but Eczacibasi scored the next one to call for the second technical time-out. Once again Impel was able to close the gap (16:15) but again Eczacibasi broke away (20:17); a second time-out by Aleksandersen, this time, could not stop the run of the hosts (22:17) and even though the players of Impel stepped up their efforts, Eczacibasi brought it home at 25-19. Three players – Bethania De la Cruz for Eczacibasi, Mroczkowska and Hana Cutura for WROCLAW – finished the set on five points each.
Eczacibasi started the second set making a series of mistakes and quickly trailed 1:5; their head coach Giovanni Caprara stopped the game but WROCLAW scored another two points and the guests were able to lead by three at the first technical time-out (5:8). Two blocks by Maja Poljak closed the gap for Eczacibasi (7:8) but some problems in reception for the Turks helped WROCLAW break away to a 16:10 lead at the second technical time-out. Neslihan Demir showed her class and power from the service line to make it 14:18 but WROCLAW responded with some great attacks (16:21). Eczacibasi were then able to close their gap to only one point (21:22) but some more points scored by Cutura and Mroczkowska brought the set to an end at 21-25.
Impel WROCLAW continued to set the pace of the game also in the early stages of the third set (5:8); Eczacibasi responded with Larson and after starting to serve by the score of 6:8, the US outside spiker remained behind the service line for 15 straight rallies! Eczacibasi first drew level at 8 all and eventually doubled their lead at the second technical time-out (16:8). The positive series for the home side continued up to the score of 20:8 until Ptak was able to stop it. However, it was a way too late for Impel to attempt any comeback and Eczacibasi finished the set at 25-10 with Poljak and De la Cruz having each scored four points in this section of the match.
Eczacibasi continued to dominate the scene also in the fourth set (4:1); however, WROCLAW did not give in and closed their deficit at 7:6. Cutura then drew level at 7 all and the score remained tight up to 9:9. Two attacks killed by De la Cruz and an ace by Poljak moved the tables to 12:9 for Eczacibasi and by the score of 13:9, the head coach of Impel, Tore Aleksandersen, asked for a time-out. The Dominican player of Eczacibasi, Bethania De la Cruz, continued to score point after point – she collected 19 in the end – and was well supported by Neslihan Demir (second best scorer with 17 points) as the home heroines finished their job at 25-16 for a well-deserved 3:1 victory.
“Every match you play in this competition can turn into a surprise and we were prepared for this,” said Eczacibasi head coach Giovanni Caprara. “All of my players did their best tonight even though we made some mistakes in the second set, especially in reception. Now we have a very important match coming up next week in Omsk and we have to recover from this one as quickly as possible.”
Neslihan Demir Güler added: “We played well for most of the match but we need to step it up for the next games in this competition. We will now start preparing for the match with Omichka as we want to keep the leadership in our Pool and get a certain advantage before the Drawing of Lots for the next round.”
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