Civitanova Marche, Italy, April 13, 2017. After rallying to a 3-0 victory in the previous round, Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA claimed a ticket to the Final Four of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League – Men, scheduled for April 29-30 in Rome, Italy, by taking the first two sets in the return match of the Italian derby with Azimut MODENA at Eurosuole Forum. The team mentored by Gianlorenzo Blengini needed only 2 sets, but ended up winning the match 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-18).

The home team set the tempo of the game in the opening set with some great defensive play by star libero Jénia Grebennikov and unstoppable attacks by Osmany Juantorena (16-11).  MODENA stormed back until 16-16 powered by great serving by Swan Ngapeth, but this was not enough since the home team built a new margin with the blocks of their captain Dragan Stankovic and the attacks killed by Jiri Kovar and Tsvetan Sokolov. The final score of 25-21 arrived with an error by the guest setter Santiago Orduna, who had replaced Dragan Travica.

The second set was another close race until 16-16, then Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA edged ahead 21-17 helped by the defence of Nicola Pesaresi and attacks of their stars Juantorena (5 points) and Sokolov (6 points).  The home team claimed another 25-21 victory and secured their progression to the Final Four of Europe’s elite club competition later this month.

From the third set, which did not have any influence on the outcome of this double header, both coaches used some of their reserve players, and CIVITANOVA were able to win the match 3-0 with Tsvetan Sokolov and Osmany Juantorena both scoring 13 points to share the top spot on the individual chart.

“The team were good at finding the mental strength which was required to play both matches of this Italian derby, which has been a very big battle, as we expected,” said the CIVITANOVA’s coach Gianlorenzo Blengini, “We are very happy and proud to get the qualification to the Final Four, as the CEV Volleyball Champions League is the most important European competition, so also the biggest target for our club. In Rome we’ll do our best to improve on the bronze medal that we got last year in Poland.”

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