24/03/2015 21:14
Atomic Girls rout Galatasaray to set sight on CEV Cup finals
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
Sopot, Poland, March 24, 2015. The home heroines of PGE Atom Trefl SOPOT claimed a one-sided match on Tuesday night at the Ergo Arena as they easily routed Galatasaray Daikin ISTANBUL of Turkey in three straight sets (25-20, 25-22, 25-19) in the first round of the semis to claim the right edge for the return match coming up on Saturday night in Turkey and where one finalist in this year’s CEV Volleyball Cup – Women will be eventually declared. The Atomic Girls outclassed their opponents in all fundamentals and now need to take ‘only’ two sets from the re-match in Istanbul to move on to the finals.
SOPOT was off to a flying start leading by 8:3 at the first technical time-out as the fans enjoyed some terrific serving provided by Klaudia Kaczorowska and the great spikes killed by Katarzyna Zaroslinska. The coach of Galatasaray Daikin, Massimo Barbolini, stopped the game once more as his side trailed by 12:6 and despite some mistakes made by the home girls SOPOT still enjoyed a four-point lead at the second technical time-out. The Turks showed some problems in their side-out and counterattack, this way helping their opponents keep their leadership in the score. As the visitors got closer (19:17) on an ace by Caterina Bosetti, the mentor of Atom Trefl, Lorenzo Micelli, stopped the game and his side promptly responded with a kill by Charlotte Leys and a block by Maja Tokarska. A series of long and contested rallies followed with Brittnee Cooper eventually bringing the first set to an end at 25-20. The home side had stood out especially in reception with Charlotte Leys recording a terrific 80% of efficiency in this fundamental.
The score remained tight up to 8 all in the second set before Leys was again the one who set the pace for the home heroines. Galatasaray showed again problems in reception even though they had raised the quality of their performance at blocking. The players of SOPOT were able to keep their focus and to respond to the attacks of their opponents, thereby widening their lead to 18:14. Caterina Bosetti and Floortje Meijners narrowed the gap to 19:18 with some fine spiking and serving, respectively, but they could not close it on as SOPOT moved on to 23:21 to prompt a time-out by Barbolini. The home side finished it off at 25-22 on a double block with Zaroslinska and Leys both recording five points in this set.
The Polish opposite showed her quality and skills also in the third set and well supported by Leys she prompted a 10:6 lead for SOPOT. That margin was extended up to six points at the second technical time-out and a terrific attack from the middle by Brittnee Cooper almost got a standing ovation by the audience. Atom Trefl continued to push (20:13) but at some point the home side lost focus for a while with their opponents attempting a late comeback. Still SOPOT did not want to extend the match any further and Zaroslinska closed the set and the match at 25-19 for a mighty 3:0 win.
“The only thing that I can say tonight is that we played a really bad game,” commented the team captain of Galatasaray, Nadia Centoni. “If you look at the final score, there is nothing else to say.”
“There is not so much time to change but we have to improve our game in all fundamentals in the coming days,” her mentor Massimo Barbolini said. “We have already showed in other occasions that we get stronger when we play at home.”
“I am not that happy with the performance we delivered tonight because we were supposed to play much better,” Atom Trefl’s mentor Lorenzo Micelli commented. “I do not want to say that we need to win only two sets in Istanbul. We just have to play another good game and that’s it. We also know from previous rounds that Galatasaray reversed at home the outcome of their away matches so we have to be very careful in approaching this re-run.”
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