Prostejov, Czech Republic, February 10, 2015. The successful crusade of Agel PROSTEJOV from the League Round of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women was stopped in their first match of the Playoffs 12 by Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL. The home players from the Czech team fought with glowing hearts and even managed to take the opening set, but in the end they suffered a 1:3 (25-18, 15-25, 14-25, 21-25) loss to the Turkish pre-favourite.
The Czech champions did much better at the start of the match, they put a lot of pressure on the opponents by their excellent serving and their game was overall very good. However, things changed in set 2 where the visitors made significant improvement in serving, which enabled them to fully unfold their game. The Turks took control of the match and got on a speedy track to victory. But Agel did not want to give up and in set 4 even took five straight points to draw level at 18-18. However, it was all the home heroines could do against the strong rival.
“We had an amazing start thanks to our very good serving and defence not letting the opponents show their best in attacking. But Eczacibasi finally found its game and showed off its strength. The turning point was at the beginning of set 2 where Eczacibasi made a big improvement in serving, imposed their rule in attacking and did much better in defence. They confirmed their enormous strength and we could not do any better with the exception of the tight ending of set 4,” said Miroslav Cada, head coach of Agel PROSTEJOV.
“We did extremely well in the opening set, mainly in serving and in defence. But then the opponents took over, improved their serving and we started to have problems in reception. And their attacking and defence were also excellent. Our all-round performance got better only in set 4 where the game was tight at the end. Anyway, Eczacibasi was better tonight and deserved to win,” said Agel PROSTEJOV's Kathleen Weiss.
“We played good volleyball tonight with the exception of the first set and we are happy with a 3:1 win because we know how strong Agel is this year and how great they were in the pool round. But we have not finished yet because there is another match ahead of us in Turkey where we have to play our best volleyball again and not allow the dangerous rival to fully unfold their potential,” said Giovanni Caprara, head coach of Eczacibasi, already thinking about the next match.
“It was our first victory in the Playoffs 12 and our first step to the Final Four where we would like to find a spot. Tonight we had some problems in reception and defence at the beginning, but in set 2 we put our game on the court and then we continued to do very well up through the end. It is terrific that we scored a 3:1 victory. Now we also have to show a good performance in the return match in Istanbul. Anyway, I have to admit that the opponent played very nice volleyball,” said Esra Gumuüs Kirici, captain of Eczacibasi VitrA.
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