22/01/2015 23:44
Atomic girls shock Italian Panthers by sweeping four sets to claim Challenge Round spot
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
Sopot, Poland, January 22, 2015. Poland’s PGE Atom Trefl SOPOT routed Italy’s Prosecco Doc-Imoco CONEGLIANO in the return match played on Thursday night at Ergo Arena for the quarter-finals of the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women. The Atomic girls first cruised to a 3:0 victory (25-20, 25-18, 25-12) and after that claimed also the golden set that followed (15-9) to move on to the Challenge Round scheduled for early March.
After catching a flying start and leading by 11:6, CONEGLIANO practically stopped playing but this was due to the outstanding performance of the Atomic girls from the service area. The hosts also relaxed a bit and felt less pressure than in the early stages of the match with Anna Kaczmar and Anna Miros (Podolec) playing a key role in their home victory after replacing starters Izabela Belcik and Katarzyna Zaroslinska. Miros, the second opposite of the team, ended up the first set by scoring six points and recording 67% of efficiency in attack. She definitely paved the way for the final 25-20 in favour of SOPOT.
As they showed superb actions in defence and reception, the Atomic girls continued their show also in the second set (10:4); the head coach of CONEGLIANO, Nicola Negro, decided to change his setter with US Micha Hancock making her debut in the European Cups to replace Marina Katic. Hancock served just great but after that the hosts regrouped, got the slimmest margin at the second technical time-out (16:15) and once the actions resumed, they imposed their pace with Maja Tokarska finishing it off at 25-18. The shining star for the home side was also Brittnee Cooper (pictured, #15) with her spectacular attacks through the middle of the net. On the other hand, the middle blockers of CONEGLIANO performed well below their standards and their opposite Emiliya Nikolova could only convert 27% of her attacks due to a bad performance of the Italian receivers.
Another key factor was the blocking performance of the home side with SOPOT having recorded 10 stuffs at the end of the second set vs. only four for CONEGLIANO. Nikolova did not find a way into the match whilst Kaczmar orchestrated the play of SOPOT by distributing to all players and making it difficult for the opponents to predict her moves. SOPOT libero Agata Durajczyk also delivered a stellar performance and in the end the Atomic girls comfortably won both the third as well as the golden sets. Top scorer in the end was Anna Miros with 13 points whilst veteran Jenny Barazza finished the game on 11 for CONEGLIANO.
Click here for more info including detailed stats of the match
|