Civitanova Marche, Italy, March 22, 2017. After rallying to a 3-1 victory in the previous round played a week ago in Poland, Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA claimed on Wednesday a ticket to the Playoffs 6 of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League – Men by taking the first two sets of the return match against PGE Skra BELCHATOW at Eurosuole Forum. The Italians, who ended up losing the match 2-3 (26-24, 25-16, 26-28, 15-25, 13-15) have now to wait for Thursday’s match between Azimut MODENA and Asseco Resovia RZESZOW to know the name of their opponent in the next round of the competition.

PGE Skra BELCHATOW set the tempo of the game in the opening set up to 23-19 with some great serving contributed by Nikolay Penchev and Mariusz Wlazly. However, CIVITANOVA (with Denys Kaliberda replacing Jiri Kovar by the score of 18-20) stormed back powered by the great serve of Micah Christenson, the attacks killed by their opposite Tsvetan Sokolov (who scored 10 points in this set) and the blocks of their captain Dragan Stankovic, who eventually closed the set at 26-24.

The chances of Skra BELCHATOW to re-open the quest for a spot in the Playoffs 6 vanished quite soon as Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA started the second set by displaying perfect Volleyball directed by the superb performance of their Bulgarian opposite Sokolov (five points, 60% of success rate). The Italians cruised to a comfortable 16-11 lead and then seized the set with the commanding score of 25-16, with Serbian middle blocker Dragan Stankovic (four points, 100% of success rate in attack) leading the way. After taking this set, CIVITANOVA had already secured their progression to the Playoffs 6 of Europe’s elite club competition.

From the third set, which did not have any influence on the outcome of this double header, both coaches used most of their reserve players, and BELCHATOW were able to win the match 3-2 with the former outside hitter of CIVITANOVA, Bartosz Kurek eventually top scoring with 26 points.

“We are very happy with our qualification for the Playoffs 6,” said CIVITANOVA’s head coach Gianlorenzo Blengini. “Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the result of the match, but we have to cope with a very challenging schedule, so it is very important to save energy as much as we can.”

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