Belgorod, Russia, January 27, 2015.  The Russian Lions from Belogorie BELGOROD finished the league round of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men with a confident victory over the 2014 CEV Volleyball Cup winner PARIS Volley in straight sets.  To top the final standings in Pool E with 15 points, the home guys shut out the French visitors by 3:0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-20).  Belogorie had secured the top position in advance, while PARIS Volley was not hoping for a miracle to leave the bottom of the table, so the coaches of both teams could afford experimenting with the players on the court.  Thus, the French team tried their middle blocker Ardo Kreek as an opposite in this match.

All the sets of today’s match followed practically the same scenario – both teams fought hard till the second technical time-out, and then the hosts took the advantage and rushed ahead, even when they put new players on court.  This match presented to the fans quite a lot of long thrilling rallies and kill blocks.  But the home team prevailed over the opponent in all aspects of the game while making much fewer mistakes.

The top scorer of the day was Belogorie’s opposite Maxim Zhigalov with 17 points followed by his teammate Dmitriy Ilinykh with 14.  Marko Bojic from PARIS Volley top scored 14 points for his team.

After the match the head coach of Belogorie Gennady Shipulin said that he was satisfied with the result and the way his players, especially the youngsters, performed.  He also expressed his satisfaction with the overall performance of the team during the league round and added that now Belogorie will be waiting for the results of the drawing of lots to continue fighting in the decisive phase of Europe’s elite club competition.

Dorian Rougeyron, head coach of PARIS Volley, was not that happy about his players as he expected them to be more determined in this match and to play more aggressively against such an opponent as Belogorie.

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