16/12/2015 09:27
Ukraine’s champions have CEV Cup quarterfinal spot in sight
2016 CEV Volleyball Cup - Women
Yuzhny, Ukraine, December 16, 2015. Ukraine’s champions and cup winners Khimik YUZHNY want to make it to the quarterfinals of the European Cups for a fourth straight season. After scoring a 3:1 away victory last week in Finland, Khimik will be hosting Finland’s LP KANGASALA on Wednesday and trying to exploit the home ground advantage to move on to the next stage of Europe’s second most prestigious club competition.
“The game in Finland was very difficult for us, but we finally edged past our opponent. I see two reasons for it, first we were able to stop the main scorer of the Finnish team, Shelby Dalton, and secondly we served very well. The second game will be very hard because LP KANGASALA know how to play away – the Finnish team indeed beat France’s SF PARIS St Cloud away from home in the previous round. However, we are determined to win this second game as well,” says Khimik’s head coach Sergei Holotov.
“Yes, we won the first game, but we were dissatisfied with the quality of our performance. We know that this victory is only the first step on our way to the next round, but at home and with the support of our fans we must play better than we did in the first game and if we manage to do so, we will then move on to the quarterfinals. We want to win the trophy, but we understand that the road to such big achievement is a long and difficult one,” says Anastasiia Chernukha, who is currently the top scorer of the 2016 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women.
“We have scouted how Khimik play, so they did not surprise us much in the first match. It is a good team but we didn’t play our best game last week and I hope we will do better now in the re-match here in Ukraine,” commented Finnish assistant coach Ismo Tahvanainen.
“This away match is our chance to progress to the quarterfinals. We want to show our best volleyball and play in the next round,” says outside spiker Allison Mayfield who last year already crossed the ways of Khimik YUZHNY in the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup when wearing the shirt of Switzerland’s TSV DÜDINGEN.
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