A night full of emotions and great matches, Polish and Italian fans have a bright smile upon their faces

2009/2010 CEV Indesit Champions League

Luxembourg, January 6, 2010. It was a very demanding night for the teams competing in the CEV Indesit Champions League as the results of these games were going to impact significantly on the provisional standings and hence on their chances to make it to the Playoffs. Time had finally come for the Poles of JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel S.A. to notch their first victory in the competition as they even scored an amazing five setter against the still undefeated armada of VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN. Generally it was a night to remember for the Italian and Polish Volleyball families since their respective three teams all left the court with convincing victories and the right mood for the next stages of the competition. A well-motivated Volley BERGAMO dismantled the archrivals of RC CANNES in front of the home fans to re-gain the leadership in Pool A and reaffirm its ambitions for an additional European trophy.

Results

Men
Jihostroj CESKE BUDEJOVICE (CZE) vs. Olympiacos PIRAEUS (GRE) 0:3 (16-25, 22-25, 19-25)
Lube Banca Marche MACERATA (ITA) vs. Noliko MAASEIK (BEL) 3:0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-20)
Knack Randstad ROESELARE (BEL) vs. PGE Skra BELCHATOW (POL) 2:3 (25-22, 25-19, 13-25, 13-25, 13-15)
Radnicki KRAGUJEVAC (SRB) vs. CAI TERUEL (ESP) 1:3 (23-25, 17-25, 25-23, 26-28)
JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel S.A. (POL) vs. VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (GER) 3:2 (34-32, 25-22, 23-25, 20-25, 15-13)
ACH Volley BLED (SLO) vs. PARIS Volley (FRA) 3:2 (20-25, 18-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-10)
Asseco Resovia RZESZOW (POL) vs. ISTANBUL B. Sehir Belediyesi (TUR) 3:0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-21)

Women
Volley BERGAMO (ITA) vs. RC CANNES (FRA) 3:1 (25-10, 25-22, 18-25, 25-20)
VakifGunesTTelekom ISTANBUL (TUR) vs. Enion Energia DABROWA GORNICZA (POL) 3:0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-18)
Dinamo MOSCOW (RUS) vs. Modranska PROSTEJOV (CZE) 3:1 (27-25, 19-25, 25-23, 25-19)
Asystel NOVARA (ITA) vs. Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNIANKA (POL) 3:1 (25-14, 23-25, 25-14, 25-22)

Click here for additional info about the matches, including detailed statistics

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Men

In Pool A Czech champion Jihostroj CESKE BUDEJOVICE failed once again to seize the night, this time against Olympiacos PIRAEUS of Greece. In the first set the game was well-balanced, but then the guests showed their supreme qualities. In front of 1,200 spectators the Greek team closed the match in three straight sets (16-25, 22-25, 19-25). Best scorer of the match was Greek star Ivan Miljkovic. With his attacks he caused the major troubles to the Czechs. The coach of Jihostroj Petr Brom said: “We have to congratulate the guests for their great game. It is a pity we hadn’t some more luck in the second set. Having clinched a set, our self confidence would have grown and the match would have been different too”. His counterpart Anders Kristiansson added: “We are happy with the result. We showed really a very good game; our players are in great condition at this time”. The match lasted for only 75 minutes, but the hosts were still pretty satisfied. Their captain Stanislav Pochop said: “We are happy to play this match, it is very important to get a lot of experience in the Champions League. We have a bunch of promising young players – especially David Juračka. He played a great first match in this competition”.

The first good news for the Italians of Lube Banca Marche MACERATA came right before the start of the match against Noliko MAASEIK: Sebastian Swiderski - for the first time in this season – was sitting on the bench, after 5 months to recover from the injury he suffered while playing with the national team of Poland. The second good news arrived from the court, where the Italian team defeated MAASEIK 3:0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-20), hence clinching the first position in the rankings of Pool C and also a big possibility to get definitely the qualification for the Playoffs next week, playing at home against Budvanska Rivijera BUDVA. The Italian coach Ferdinando De Giorgi had to cope with the forfeit of both libero Mirko Corsano and middle blocker Martin Lebl, both injured Top scorer of the match was the Croatian opposite Igor Omrcen with 15 points who made the difference with his strong serve (he also scored 3 aces). Coach De Giorgi commented: “We scored an important victory, for the first position but also to earn the possibility to get the qualification for the Playoffs already next week. Noliko is a good team, but today we stayed focused and that made the difference”.

Spain's CAI TERUEL easily did its job tonight during its visit to Serbia. Radnicki KRAGUJEVAC tonight wasn't good enough to play against the well-inspired team from Aragona. In front of about 1'000 spectators who were expecting a first CICL joy this season, the Spaniards demonstrated why they are on the top of Pool D. Radnicki played with more consistency in the third set, but during the other sections of the game they simply were good enough in all segments of the game to maintain their lead. The main difference between the two teams came from the reception, where the Serbs couldn't perform well (they totaled only 29% of efficiency). A fantastic Francisco José Rodriguez Herrera bagged up 20 points for TERUEL. Serbian coach Slobodan Kovac admitted that his team isn't able to prove that they deserve to play in this competition. “If 50 out of the 101 TERUEL totaled tonight are our mistakes, there is no hope to notch the game“, he said. Spaniard Oscar Mozos told that his team played well in the first two sets: “We have some credit for the key rallies and that makes me feel happy“, he added.

This evening the first place in Pool D was at stake in the match featuring Knack Randstad ROESELARE and PGE Skra BELCHATOW. It was a very long and demanding match but BELCHATOW turned the score completely around to score the final 3:2 with two attacks in a row of captain Mariusz Wlazly. Top scorers of the match were Stéphane Antiga (17 points) for the guests and Ivan Contreras (16) for the local heroes. After the match, the head coach of ROESELARE Dominique Baeyens said: “I would like to congratulate my players. They did a perfect job in the first two sets and also in the fifth set they made a tremendous comeback. But this Polish team has a lot of quality in the house. They made the difference with their blocks and the input of Wlazly from the third set hurt us a lot. Our next match in Teruel becomes now extremely important.”

Surprise in Jastrzebie Zdroj! After three consecutive losses the Poles scored tonight their first victory after a dramatic match against VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN of Germany. Almost 2,000 enthusiastic fans cheered for the hosts in their game against the current leaders of Pool E. In the deciding tie-break JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel S.A. enjoyed a very slim margin (first at 5:3, then at 11:9), before Australian Igor Yudin eventually spiked successfully for the last point and fire up the celebrations. German mentor Stelian Moculescu said: "Congratulations to the Polish team. We have been experiencing some problems over the last few days. Boehme had fever and other players were infected too. In the tie-break we didn't have enough energy left to compete with our rival". "Of course I am disappointed, added German star Gyorgy Grozer who scored tonight all alone 37 points, poor reception and bad services were the key factors that explain why we eventually lost this match”. "Comparing our first matches in the Champions League I can say that we started playing much better. Good service and solid reception were on our side. Of course, we made some mistakes, but in the crucial moments we were able to finish the decisive attacks, especially with Igor Yudin in the tie-break. Now we are back in contention for the Playoffs", says Russian star Pavel Abramov.

In front of 3’500 supporters Asseco Resovia RZESZOW scored tonight another victory in a very impressive style as they almost demolished their rivals of ISTANBUL B. Sehir Belediyesi in straight sets. The best scorer of the game was Asseco Resovia opposite Mikko Oivanen with 20 points. Aleh Akhrem added 12 for the local team while Kostadin Stoykov and Jeroen Trommel squeezed in with 9 for the Turks. “We are disappointed but obviously we lost two games with a team that is better than us. The only thing we can do now is to win the next games and hope that the combination of some lucky results will help to qualify for the Playoffs” said Turkish captain Ulas Kiyak. “We proved that we’ve been playing some really good volleyball in the last four weeks. I think that the Turks played better here than in Turkey and they also took benefit from our great fans. I’d like to thank especially our young libero Tomasz Glod who is only 17 years old but hold on the pressure and showed great quality on the field” stated Asseco captain Krzysztof Gierczynski.

ACH Volley BLED of Slovenia suffered a shaky start in Ljubljana and trailed two sets down before eventually storming back to finally seize the night against PARIS Volley. In the deciding set the home team got an early lead (3:1) but PARIS quickly came back into the game and tied the result (3:3). As teams changed sides BLED set the tone for the 8:6 and then ended the match victoriously for the delight of the local crowd. Andrej Flajs, ACH Volley’s captain, said after the match: “We are sincerely happy since we almost lost the match; nobody even thought that we could not win and then our determination not to yield turned true. Our trump card is also the fact that our coach can replace any player at any time, since we are all equal.” Sebastijan Škorc, libero of PARIS Volley who is also a former player of ACH BLED added: “Our team is heterogeneous and our primary goal is the French national league. The spectators and the atmosphere here are amazing. ACH Volley is a great team. I am also among those keeping my fingers crossed for their win in the next leg.” Estonian Oliver Venno, ACH Volley's opposite, who got injured in the second set, has a twisted ankle and should be able to start training and preparing for the next matches after a few days of rest.

Women

The defending champions of Volley BERGAMO got tonight their immediate revenge against RC CANNES after their defeat in the previous match-up right before Christmas. With more than 1’400 fans having resumed to the PalaNorda, BERGAMO played a great match to notch back the leadership in Pool A. In the opening of the match everything worked perfectly for the Italian team: serve, attack, block-defence and great attacks coming from Del Core and Furst completed a perfect scenario. Best scorer for BERGAMO was tonight Antonella Del Core (with 26 points including 1 ace and four blocks) while captain Victoria Ravva topped the count for CANNES (13). Back up setter Katarzyna Gujska well governed the operations and played a key role in tonight’s victory for the hosts. Coach Lorenzo Micelli was very happy at the end of the match: “This is a great result. Without Eleonora Lo Bianco, who is not yet in a good physical condition, we could have experienced some tactical problems, but our second setter Gujska played with intelligence: she served perfectly our blockers and put our spikers in the right position against the French block”.

In front of about 1’500 spectators Dinamo MOSCOW defeated tonight Czech Modranska PROSTEJOV in four sets (27-25, 19-25, 25-13, 25-19). With this victory the Muscovites practically booked the second place in Pool C. Simona Gioli for Dinamo and Marketa Tomanova for the guests were selected as best players of the match. Gioli topped also the scorers’ lists with 20 points. After some mistakes in the second set, regular setter Oksana Parkhomenko was replaced and later on she said: “While sitting on the bench I understood what was not working in my play”. The result of her understanding was the brilliant performance displayed in the third and forth sets.

VakifGunesTTelekom ISTANBUL of Turkey is still unbeaten after four legs having scored tonight another 3:0 against Enion Energia DABROWA GORNICZA of Poland. Neslihan Darnel put up a stellar performance and concluded the match as the definitive top scorer, whereas her teammate Kinga Maculewicz was voted as MVP. After the match, Waldemar Kawka, the coach of the Polish team, commented: “We were playing a bit better in the first two sets but the Turks are really a good team that can qualify for the final four. We tried to do our best to have some chances to make it to the Playoffs”. Captain and veteran Magdalena Sliwa added: “Our opponent has great spikers who are leading also their respective national teams. We played better than a few weeks ago Poland here in Istanbul. At least we could struggle a lot”. Local coach Giovanni Guidetti stated: “I am very happy. I want to congratulate my players for keeping their firm concentration until the end of the game. It was not easy to push totally after such an easy match”.

Asystel NOVARA took its revenge against Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNIANKA with a 3:1 that definitely turns around the score registered a few weeks ago in Poland. Dutch star Manon Flier was voted MVP of the match; Logan Tom and Margareta Kozuch also performed pretty well for the hosts especially in the third and fourth sets. Italian coach Luciano Pedullà was certainly happy at the end of the match: “Last time in Poland we could not line up two of our most important players, Paggi and Tom. Anyway, today we played strongly and that is the result of the hard training sessions we have been going through”. Captain Paola Paggi expressed her happiness: “We have been working really hard and the biggest victory is to have found our harmony back, we make less mistakes and we enjoy more and more playing together: basically, we have the will to play and win, something that maybe we forgot for a certain period”. MVP Manon Flier adds: “I felt good on the court today, and it’s a great sensation. I think people have noticed it, and it’s a great satisfaction!”. During the match, NOVARA presented setter Kim Staelens who will be helping Irina Kirillova for the rest of the season.