18/02/2015 17:15
Eczacibasi VitrA seal Playoffs 6 ticket with convincing home win
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women
Istanbul, Turkey, February 18, 2015. Turkey’s Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL continue their quest for a spot in the Final Four tournament of this year’s CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women following their 25-14, 25-14, 25-19 home victory over Czech champions Agel PROSTEJOV which paved their way to the Playoffs 6. This followed on last week’s 3:1 away victory in the Czech Republic and now Eczacibasi will play the winners of the match starring RC CANNES of France and Volero ZÜRICH of Switzerland for a spot in the Final Four scheduled for April 4-5 in Szczecin, Poland and hosted by Chemik POLICE.
The match started with both teams completing their side-out (2:2) until Jordan Larson-Burbach, Maja Poljak and Bethania de la Cruz contributed an 8:4 lead for Eczacibasi at the first technical time-out. Czech mentor Miroslav Cada stopped the game as his team trailed by 4:10 but he could not turn the tide and the hosts stretched their lead to 16:11 at the second mandatory stop. Cada stopped the actions once more but Eczacibasi continued to play with the right intensity bringing the first set to an end at 25-14. Dominican Republic’s Bethania de la Cruz contributed six points with Larson-Burbach and Poljak following with five apiece.
The second set started with Larson and Neslihan Demir Güler scoring for Eczacibasi but Liannes Castaneda Simon responded for PROSTEJOV to make it 2 all. Eczacibasi then scored three in a row and a three-point lead was kept also at the first technical time-out. As the hosts had widened their lead to five points (12:7), the Czech coach asked for a break but Eczacibasi continued to impress with their solid block and effective serves to make it 18:9 in their favour. A second time-out asked by Cada could not prevent Agel from losing the set by 14-25 and at this stage Eczacibasi had already sealed their ticket to the Playoffs 6.
This provided home mentor Giovanni Caprara with an opportunity to almost completely change his line up and so Eczacibasi started the third set with setter Nilay Özdemir, opposite Gözde Yilmaz, outside spikers Seyma Ercan and Esra Gümüs Kirici, and middle blocker Büsra Cansu. This, however, did not have an impact on the course of the match with Eczacibasi claiming a 7:3 lead and with Cada stopping the game again at 13:6. The advantage of the home side stood at seven points by the time the second technical time-out was called and even though Andrea Kossanyiova cut this deficit to three at 19:16, team captain Esra Gümüs Kirici took her side by the hand and anchored Eczacibasi to a 25-19 set win to seal the final 3:0.
Though she did not play in the third set, Jordan Larson-Burbach top scored with 12 points followed by Bethania de la Cruz with 9, whilst Kossanyiova paced Agel PROSTEJOV with 8.
“We already got the right edge following our victory from last week in the Czech Republic but we knew this was not enough to secure our qualification to the Playoffs 6,” commented Giovanni Caprara after the home win. “Today we served very well and this way we forced our opponent to make mistakes. I am delighted with my players’ performance in this match. It is now time to focus on the next round.”
Home star Neslihan Demir Güler added: “We are happy with making it to the next stage of this competition. We know that the next round will be much tougher and we have to prepare well for that. We have to improve on the level and quality of our performance and hope that this will be enough to lift the cup by the end of the season.”
Click here for more info including detailed stats of the match
|