Luxembourg, December 13, 2019.  Two and a half hours did not suffice for Greece’s Olympiacos PIRAEUS and Italy’s Leo Shoes MODENA to determine the winner of their CEV Volleyball Cup 2020 encounter. The thrilling game lasted 154 minutes and proved to be this week’s longest among all sixteenthfinal fixtures in both CEV Cup and Challenge Cup competition.

CEV Cup

The scoring race between Olympiacos’s Czech opposite Michal Finger and Leo Shoes’ Polish outside Bartosz Bednorz ended up in a tie as they fired 22 points each, but it was the Italian side that had the upper hand in the nail-biting thriller with a 3-2 (32-34, 25-17, 36-38, 25-19, 17-15) victory. The game also featured an individual blocking contest between Georgios Petreas and Daniele Mazzone (both pictured above), which also finished with a draw – five stuffs apiece.

The week featured two more five-setters, both of which resulted in wins for the visiting teams, which gained a precious advantage before next week’s return leg. After an extended tie-breaker, Belarus’s Shakhtior SOLIGORSK squeezed out a 3-2 (20-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-17, 17-15) victory over Germany’s United Volleys FRANKFURT, despite a 24-point high by home side’s Floris van Rekom and five kill blocks by his teammate Jean-Philippe Sol.

VK OSTRAVA’s Oliver Sedlacek was one of the two players who topped the week’s blocking charts in the CEV Cup, but his six stuffs proved insufficient for a team win, as their visitors SK Zadruga AICH/DOB of Austria outplayed the Czech squad on the way to a 3-2 (25-23, 17-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-7) victory.


Oliver Sedlacek in the middle of a three-men OSTRAVA block

The other one was Blazo Milic of Montenegro’s OK BUDVA, which claimed a 3-1 (25-16, 21-25, 25-22, 25-12) win at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s OK Kakanj 78 KAKANJ. Milic fell one short of tying this week’s serving high, finishing with “just” four aces.

Adrien Prevel shone for his LAUSANNE UC, topping the serving charts with five aces towards a match total of 24 points, but his Swiss team lost 1-3 (23-25, 25-23, 18-25, 20-25) at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mladost BRCKO.

The best scorer of the week, across both the CEV Cup and the Challenge Cup, emerged from Galatasaray HDI ISTANBUL’s home victory over Dukla LIBEREC. Estonian opposite Oliver Venno hammered out 25 points towards the Turkish team’s 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-17, 25-19) win over the Czech opponents. Italian outside Oleg Antonov supported Galatasaray with four aces.



Challenge Cup

Penzügyör BUDAPEST became the first team to progress to the Challenge Cup eighthfinals. With both legs of their sixteenthfinal series against Cyprus’s Omonia NICOSIA taking place in the Hungarian capital this week, the home side produced two emphatic straight-set victories – 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-15) on Tuesday and 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-16) on Wednesday – to advance.

Australian middle blocker Beau James Graham delivered the most impressive individual performance in the Challenge Cup this week, nailing eight of his team’s 19 blocks towards the 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 25-16) home victory of Estonia’s SAAREMAA VC over Israel’s Hapoel Yoav KFAR SABA.


The fantastic home crowd of SAAREMAA VC celebrates the victory

In one of the week’s three five-setters, Czechia’s KLADNO Volejbal cz piled up 20 kill blocks to help snatch a 3-2 (20-25, 27-25, 14-25, 25-22, 15-11) away victory at Romania’s SCM U CRAIOVA. The home side contributed to this blocking fiesta with a total of 16 stuffs, six of which courtesy of Croatian outside spiker Filip Sestan.

Miodrag Jelic also impressed with six blocking points as his Montenegrin team, Buducnost PODGORICA, battled it out in a rollercoaster match with Slovak visitors VKP SPU NITRA to gain a 3-2 (25-17, 19-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-12) win. On the other side of the net, Martin Barbas registered four aces, while 18-year-old Michal Kilian put away 24 spikes to become one of the two top scorers of the week.

The other one on 24 points, but achieved in four sets only, was 38-year-old Filip Rejlek. His performance contributed to a 3-1 (16-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-20) home win for VK ČEZ KARLOVARSKO over Belarus’s Stroitel MINSK.

Five sets were played in Denmark, as Tobias Hougs Kjær aced five times towards GENTOFTE Volley's 3-2 (25-14, 25-22, 17-26, 23-25, 15-12) dramatic victory over Romanian visitors ACS Volei Municipal ZALAU.

Experienced Czech outside Kamil Baránek, however, was this week’s most efficient server in the Challenge Cup as he delivered five aces in just the three sets of the speedy 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-17) home win for France’s RENNES Volley 35 over Switzerland's Volley SCHÖNENWERD.



The return sixteenthfinal matches in both tournaments that are yet to be played are scheduled for next week, on December 17, 18 or 19.

For more info, go to the CEV Cup 2020 and the CEV Challenge Cup 2020 sections of the CEV website.