28/01/2015 21:08
Italian ‘Butterflies’ upset Finnish rookies after dramatic tie-break victory
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women
Salo, Finland, January 28, 2015. Finland’s rookies LP SALO missed out on a historic achievement on Wednesday night as they eventually lost at the tie-break to Italy’s Unendo Yamamay BUSTO ARSIZIO (26-28, 25-18, 25-19, 14-25, 16-18) a match where they definitely stood a chance of claiming their first victory in the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women. LP SALO had two match balls in the fifth set but could not cash any of those, and Russian middle blocker Ekaterina Lyubushkina then stopped Kaisa Jokinen to seal the final 18-16 for the visitors from Italy.
The match was played at a very high level and both coaches, Carlo Parisi and Kari Raatikainen, were happy with their team’s performance, especially in defence. The Italians claimed an early lead in the first set and controlled the game until LP SALO drew level at 18 all on some great actions by Laura Pihlajamäki. LP SALO then moved to the front at 21:20 and with an ace by Dubravka Rakic they widened their lead to two points (23:21). However, it was not enough to bring it home and the Italians were in the end those who celebrated at 28-26 after a kill block by Ciara Michel.
The second set was a real show of strength for LP SALO and especially for their Ukrainian-born player Olena Lymareva who was just unstoppable. Even though BUSTO ARSIZIO could count on their great libero Giulia Leonardi, Lymareva and Pihlajamäki left no chance to their rivals and closed the second set at 25-18. The Finns continued to play with high intensity also in the third set moving the score to 9:3. However, the Italian ‘Butterflies’ clawed back to make it 13 all but LP SALO stepped up again and brought the set to an end at 25-19 powered by Anu Ennok (pictured) and Viktoriia Polishchuk.
The fourth set was absolutely one-sided with BUSTO ARSIZIO finding no resistance on the other side of the net and bringing it to an end at 25-14 to go for the tie-break. The teams exchanged the lead back and forth there up to 13 all; LP SALO had two match balls that they could not capitalise on and in the end Lyubushkina blocked Jokinen for the 18-16 that left the home heroines and their fans with a bitter taste as their first, historic CL victory had just been within their reach.
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