Istanbul, Turkey, March 05, 2015. Two-time title holder and last year’s runner-up VakifBank ISTANBUL won the first match with city rival Fenerbahce Grundig ISTANBUL of the Playoffs 6 in the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Women.  Milena Rasic contributed 19 points towards the 3:1 (25-23, 28-26, 19-25, 25-16) victory, but Yellow Angel Yeon-Koung Kim was the top scorer of the game with 25.

The home side squeezed out the minimum advantage at the end of each of the first sets, which were very competitive, to take a 2:0 lead after 25-23 and 28-26.  After that the two teams dominated one set each with Fenerbahce winning the third by 25-19 and VakifBank stamping the victory with 25-16 in the fourth.

The head coach of VakifBank ISTANBUL Giovanni Guidetti said after the game:  “Tonight we made just a little step towards the Final Four.  Next week we have to win again.  Sure we played well and I am very happy that we won, but it is not the time for celebration.  Next week it will be another tough game for us.  It will be a different game from this one as Fenerbahce will play at home in front of its fans.  We have to be as strong and confident as today.”

VakifBank’s player Robin de Kruijf added:  “We are very happy that we won this game against Fenerbahce, because they are one of the strongest teams in the Champions League.  But, we need to win next week as well.  We played well and cleverly today, just in the third set we could have been more aggressive.  I hope we are going to win next week and qualify for the Final Four.”

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