Cannes, France, February 11, 2015.  In a game where each team had its ups and downs, it was finally the Swiss champion Volero ZURICH, more solid in the money time, which won by 3:2 (21-25, 25-9, 16-25, 25-17, 15-5) against RC CANNES and took an option to qualify for the next round of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women by winning the return match at home.  It would have taken a more consistent home team to change the course of this match and, somehow, logic has been respected.

As opposed to its previous games in the Champions League, RC CANNES took a good start and then kept a lead that built up regularly, thanks to aggressive serving and good spikes, particularly from Alexandra Lazic and from middle blockers Victoria Ravva and Nneka Onyejekwe, while Volero’s reception and attacking game were rather hesitant.  CANNES’ lead melted down to only one point at 17-16 due to good blocks by the Swiss, but the French team pulled it off at the end for 25-21 in a set generally well-handled.

The beginning of the second set was much more favourable to the Swiss team, which obliged Yan Fang, the Chinese-born coach of the French squad, to take a first time-out at 1-5 to slow down Volero’s increasing momentum, but in vain.  The Swiss attacking machine was now set like a clockwork and its motor roared until 25-9 at the end of the set, with 7 points scored by Dobriana Rabadzhieva and another 5 by Olesia Rykhliuk.

The third set was balanced until CANNES took a 4-point lead at 14-10, helped by an improved defence, very few mistakes and also by many attacking errors made by the Swiss spikers towards the final 25-16.

Volero was back on track in the fourth set and took a 14-10 lead before breaking further away to win the set by 25-17.  Cuban middle blocker Rachel Sanchez Perez, with 7 points, including 3 kill blocks, was particularly efficient, together with Ukrainian Olesia Rykhliuk.

Volero achieved an 8-4 lead in the first half of the tie-breaker and widened the gap to an impressive 15-5 at the end of the set, closing the match at 3:2.

Olesia Rykhliuk with 23 points and Dobriana Rabadzhieva with 15 points were the best scorers of this game.

“The main positive lesson that we can draw from this loss is that we can cause trouble to big teams such as Volero,” declared RC CANNES’ captain Victoria Ravva after the game.  “We will have to improve several things in our game to aim for a victory in Zurich.  It will not be easy, but I am convinced that there is a real possibility.  In the past, we have proven that we can bounce back.”

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