24/02/2016 20:17
Romanian ‘Tigresses’ on to Challenge Cup semis against titleholders BURSA BBSK
2016 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup - Women
Bucharest, Romania, February 24, 2016. As they performed before a packed arena, the hosts of C.S.M. BUCURESTI claimed their second consecutive 3-0 win (25-20, 25-14, 25-22) over Germany’s VC WIESBADEN in the quarter-finals of the 2016 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Women to progress to the semis and play there 2015 gold medal winners BURSA BBSK of Turkey.
Actually VC WIESBADEN looked determined to bounce back from their home loss and set the pace of the game in the early stages of the opening set. They served really well and with that they caused a lot of problems to the receivers of the home team, this resulting in a 16-12 lead for VC WIESBADEN at the second technical time-out. At this stage C.S.M. BUCURESTI were able to fight back helped by their Italian setter Giulia Pincerato (pictured, #10) and with seven straight points the Romanians edged ahead at 19-16. After that, the ‘Tigresses’ - as the players of C.S.M. BUCURESTI are nicknamed - controlled the game through to the end of the set which was cashed at 25-20 on a spike by their Finnish middle blocker Laura Pihlajamäki.
The second set was one-sided with the hosts setting the tone with an 8-0 run following excellent serving by Georgiana Fales. VC WIESBADEN could not come back from this early blow and with their 25-14 set win the hosts secured their progression to the semis of the Challenge Cup.
As the major goal was achieved, the coach of the home team, Francois Salvagni, replaced Roxana Bacsis with Adina-Maria Rosca. She did a good job from the service line and contributed to a 6-3 lead for C.S.M. BUCURESTI. Even though the home side edged ahead by as many as seven points, VC WIESBADEN kept on fighting and levelled the score at 18-all. What followed was a neck and neck race up to 22 all before Pincerato made the difference from the service line to seal a 3-0 victory for C.S.M. BUCURESTI.
“The pressure was entirely on our team after winning the first match in Germany by 3-0,” said C.S.M. BUCURESTI coach Salvagni. “VC WIESBADEN showed that they are a great team, they served good and managed to cause us problems in the first set. However, we were able to recover from these early troubles and won the match in three sets. We have a tough semi-final ahead against BURSA BBSK but I am hopeful we stand a chance, especially looking at the way we have been working for the past month.”
Dirk Gross, coach of VC WIESBADEN, commented: “The players of C.S.M. BUCURESTI played as they were dressed, which means like tigresses. We started very well but as the match progressed we made more and more mistakes and ended up having no chance. I believe that C.S.M. BUCURESTI and BURSA BBSK are going to deliver a couple of great matches in the semis.”
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