Istanbul, Turkey, March 4, 2015.  Galatasaray FXTCR ISTANBUL came out victorious from the 2015 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup first quarterfinal match at home against Serbia’s Vojvodina NS Seme NOVI SAD.  The Turkish team came back from a set down to hammer out a 3:1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 28-26) win.

The hosts were caught short of persistence in attack in the first set, as Vojvodina showed remarkable defensive skills.   After gaining important advantage with Stevan Simic’s serves that completely distorted Galatasaray’s reception-attack balance at mid-set, the Serbian national cup winners won the first set by 25-23.  The home squad responded with a good start of the second set and maintained its game rhythm.  Even though Vojvodina tried to never drop the ball, Galatasaray FXTCR created attacking solutions, thus winning the second and third sets by the same score - 25-21.  The surprise of the day came from Yasin Aydın and Bogachan Zambak, two young Galatasaray players, who really took the responsibility of the chance given to them.  The Turkish side won the fourth set by 28-26 and took three not so easy points before their journey to Serbia next week.

Flavio Gulinelli, head coach of Galatasaray FXTCR, commented after the match:  “We wanted a three-point leverage out of this match.  We are happy about the result, of course.  I am more than appreciative of our players coming from the bench, since they are always ready, aware and awake.  We will keep working to move on to the Challenge Cup semifinals.”

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