17/02/2013 20:37
Knack ROESELARE claims Belgium's national cup
News from the clubs
Antwerp, Belgium, February 17, 2013. About 5,500 fans got together on Sunday at Lotto Arena in Antwerp as Knack ROESELARE claimed Belgium’s national cup for the eighth time by edging their archrivals of Noliko MAASEIK with the score of 3:1 (16-25, 25-19, 25-23, and 25-22).
Actually Noliko had caught a very good start by setting the tempo of the match in the first set (8:4, 12:6) as Latvian spiker Hermans Egleskalns was standing out in offense. Last year’s champions did not lose control of the operations (21:13) and could comfortably seize the opening set (25-16).
In set 2 Knack ROESELARE stormed out to a provisional 8:5 lead at the first technical time-out and the side that is currently topping the charts of the Belgian national league could bring it home at 25-19 for the 1:1. The score remained very close in set 3 up to 15 all, before Hendrik Tuerlinckx (pictured) scored three aces in a row to move the charts up to 18:15. Noliko fought their way back to 23 all but the next couple of rallies were claimed by Knack for the final 25-23. Set 4 followed a similar plot with Knack going up by two points at the second technical time-out and controlling the operations up to the end (25-22) to celebrate a well-deserved 3:1 win.
“Some small details determined the fate of the match; my players did believe in their chances of beating Noliko for a third time this season and their motivation contributed this victory” a happy Knack head coach Emile Rousseaux says.
“We lack consistency and can’t keep the necessary quality all the way through” an upset head coach of Noliko, Brecht Van Kerckhove stresses. “We played a good first set but then made a way too many mistakes. This is something we really need to improve on; anyway my congratulations to Knack ROESELARE on their win”.
The final of the women’s competition was claimed earlier in the afternoon by VC OUDEGEM that beat pre-favorite Asterix KIELDRECHT in four sets.
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