Minsk, Belarus, March 11, 2015.  Stroitel MINSK achieved a historic success by qualifying for the semifinals of the 2015 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup - Men.  This is the first time a team from Belarus celebrates such an accomplishment.  After a loss in Turkey a week ago, the Belarusian champion found itself in a tough situation before the return match at home against Maliye Milli Piyango ANKARA in the quarterfinals, but managed to win the game by 3:1 (24-26, 26-24, 25-22, 25-16) and the golden set by 15-11 to please the full house of home fans at the Chyzhovka-Arena.

In the first set the home team seemed to have the rhythm of the match under control when leading by 12-9, but the main striking force of Maliye Milli Piyango, Bram Van den Dries, served well to turn things around. Some early substitutions in Stroitel’s line-up proved successful, as young opposite Radzivo Miskevich came in at the end of the set and equalized the score.  Nevertheless, the home team made some unforced errors that let the opponent win the first set by 26-24.  The Turkish team was extremely close to the success in the second set, when it tied the score at 24-24, after Stroitel was leading by 8-4 and 18-14.  The French outside spiker Xavier Kapfer was successful in serving and attacking, but that was not enough to win the set as the home team managed to take the last two points for 26-24.  The third set was a tense fight too and again Stroitel opened a 4-point gap at 9-5.  The visiting team led by Gazmend Husaj and Van den Dries was chasing Stroitel and was close to the semifinals when the Albanian spiker was serving towards a 22-21 lead, but inspired by the fans’ support, the home team won four points in a row to close the set at 25-22.  After losing so many chances to win, Maliye Milli Piyango was not able to fight for the fourth set.  The result looked easily predictable as early as the second technical time-out, which came at 16-10.  Stroitel extended it to 25-16 and prompted a golden set.

The teams concentrated on the decisive set.  The home team led by 4-1, but the Turkish team got back in the game, showing some character for 6-6.  Retaking the lead at 9-8, Stroitel never gave it up again and cruised on to a 15-11 victory.

In the semifinals Stroitel MINSK will face Serbia’s Vojvodina NS seme NOVI SAD.

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