League Round comes to an end with a series of clear results

2009/2010 CEV Indesit Champions League - Women

Luxembourg, January 19, 2009. As the very best Volleyball players resumed to the court for their last matches in the League Round, an impressive series of quick three-setters marked this much awaited night which finally defines the starting field for the Playoffs 12. With the organization of the Final Four to be allotted this Thursday and the host benefiting of a “bye”, i.e. skipping completely the upcoming Playoffs, there is an additional spot available for the next round of the 2009/2010 CEV Indesit Champions League. Taking into consideration the final standings of the various Pools, Romania’s Metal GALATI will make it to the Playoffs as the best fourth-ranked team of the preliminaries. The emotions will have their climax now on Thursday afternoon with the Drawing of Lots for the Playoffs being staged at the CEV premises in Luxembourg, hence penciling the match-ups that will delight all Volleyball fans in the coming weeks.

Results

Volley BERGAMO (ITA) vs. ZOK RIJEKA (CRO) 3:0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-17)
RC CANNES (FRA) vs. Universitet BELGOROD (RUS) 3:0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-13)
VakifGunesTTelekom ISTANBUL (TUR) vs. ASPTT MULHOUSE (FRA) 3:1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-10, 25-20)
Enion Energia DABROWA GORNICZA (POL) vs. Scavolini PESARO (ITA) 0:3 (23-25, 21-25, 19-25)
Dinamo MOSCOW (RUS) vs. Aluprof BIELSKO-BIALA (POL) 3:1 (25-17, 25-18, 22-25, 25-19)
Modranska PROSTEJOV (CZE) vs. FenerbahceAcibadem ISTANBUL (TUR) 0:3 (20-25, 22-25, 21-25)
Asystel NOVARA (ITA) vs. Zarechie ODINTSOVO (RUS) 2:3 (25-20, 21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 9-15)
Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNIANKA (POL) vs. Metal GALATI (ROU) 3:0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-15)

Click here for additional info, including final standings of the various Pools

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Pool A

Volley BERGAMO bagged tonight a great victory against Croatian ZOK RIJEKA to maintain the second place in Pool A. Setter Eleonora Lo Bianco made her debut in this year’s Champions League and headed the Italians with great determination. In the beginning of the match, everything worked perfectly for the defending champions: serve, block-defence and dangerous attacks of Piccinini and Arrighetti helped in seizing the night. Best scorer for Bergamo was tonight superstar Francesca Piccinini (14 points) while Starcevic topped the count for RIJEKA with 9. Caterina Fanzini received the MVP at the end of the match: she scored a total of 11 points with 4 blocks. Coach Micelli was very happy at the end of the match: “We needed a victory to defend our second position in Pool A because we were defeated last week in Russia, but today we played a good match. Piccinini and Fanzini played a very important role to reach this victory. Now we wait for the next adversary to continue our campaign in the Champions League”.

Pool B

With a 3:0 victory against Enion Energia DABROWA GORNICZA in Poland, Scavolini PESARO did not simply conclude in great fashion the League Round but also clipped the result that was well needed to finally top the standings of Pool B. The Polish girls fought bravely in front of their fans bout could not cope with the tremendously hard services of the Italians and the mighty attacks of both Skowrońska-Dolata and Costagrande. In the third and final set the blocks and spikes of Skowrońska-Dolata and Guiggi demolished the Polish team. Local captain Magdalena Śliwa said after the match: “I’m very glad that today’s match was pretty even. This match was much better than that we played in Pesaro. We’re waiting for the next opponent and we hope to make a surprise in the Playoffs”. Polish star Katarzyna Skowrońska-Dolata – who plays for Scavolini PESARO – added: “I’m glad that tonight we finished the match with a 3:0, and that we are first in our group. Our opponents were well prepared tonight. I’m happy that I’ve visited Poland”. Her coach Angelo Vercesi concluded: “I pay a lot of respect to Magdalena Śliwa who is able to play such a fast Volleyball. I like very much this competition hall and the Polish spectators with their crazy enthusiasm for Volleyball”.

VakifGunesTTelekom ISTANBUL of Turkey defeated tonight ASPTT MULHOUSE in four sets in front of the home audience to conclude in the right mood the League Round and wait now for the results of the Drawing of Lots for the Playoffs 12. Before the start of the game, the Chairman of the Turkish Volleyball Federation, Mr. Erol Unal Karabiyik, handed over a plate to the CEV Supervisor Mr. Achilleas Mavromatis as a symbol of gratitude for his service to the Balkan Volleyball family as Secretary General of the BVA since 2004. The MVP of the game was local heroine Arzu Gollu. On the other hand, the top scorer of the match was another local star, Neslihan Darnel, with a total of 22 points whereas Dominika Sieradzan, the best scorer for MULHOUSE, squeezed in with 13 points. After the match coach Guidetti stated: “We started too relaxed and we paid our price with the loss of the first set. Maybe we will lose the leadership in the Pool because of this set but in the Champions League it does not matter whom you play with in the Playoffs. The important thing we need to learn from this game is that we should keep our focus on the match at every single point.” Captain Arzu Gollu added: “We started with the distress of having the obligation to win in straight sets. That’s why we might have lost the first set. Then we picked our game and won the next three sets. We will wait for the result of PESARO’s game to learn whether we will be the leader in the Pool or not.”

Pool C

In front of some 1’500 spectators Dinamo MOSCOW successfully concluded its campaign in the League Round with a 3:1 victory against Aluprof BIELSKO-BIALA of Poland. The match did not have a very special meaning since Dinamo would have anyway finished second in the Pool and the Poles are out of contention for the Playoffs 12. The Muscovites notched the first couple of sets without any major problems. But in the third set Aluprof displayed an excellent performance in defense, the Russians got a bit nervous and eventually they lost the set 22-25. In the next set Dinamo cruised pretty easily to the final 25-19. The best players of the match were Elena Ezhova for Dinamo and captain Anna Baranska for the guests. Bet scorers for Dinamo were Elena Godina, Nataliya Goncharova and Simona Gioli – all with 15 points. Gioli was very happy to have her husband ans son Gabriele among the audience in Moscow. After the game Aleksandr Perepelkin, who substituted head coach Valery Losev the latter being sick, told that it was not an easy day: “But we have a very strong team and all players are high quality professionals. We did it”. Spiker Lesya Makhno was not happy with the third set and added: “We are glad to finish the group stage with a victory”.

In the other match of the Pool invincible FenerbahceAcibadem ISTANBUL of Turkey totally destroyed the Czech girls of Modranska PROSTEJOV with a quick 3:0. The greatest stars of the visiting team, i.e. Ekaterina Gamova and Frauke Dirickx, stayed on the bench to leave their place for some back-up players. With Ssuschke in the serving area PROSTEJOV gained a lead of three points but the guests improved their defence and fought back bravely. At the end of the set coach Soz sent Gamova into the game thus reinforcing the confidence of Fenerbahce that successfully closed the first set. The Turks kept their real dominance also in the opening of the second set. Rasna served twice to move up the score from 1:0 to 1:6 and then from 9:12 to 9:18. The home team struggled with some bad reception while the guests created beautiful combinations usually ending with wonderful kills for the duo Osmokrovic and Erdem. Only in the second half of the set the hosts were able to improve their overall performance thanks to fast attacks through the centre of the net and perfect serves of Spalova. The ending might have seen a shocking twist when PROSTEJOV diverted six set-points and thus deleted what might have been a horrible deficit. The black-out from the ending of the second set left no traces on Fenerbahce and since the score of stood at the guests kept the tight rein on the development of the match again. Excellent Turkish serves caused serious troubles to the home team but anytime the Czechs managed to set the ball properly they asserted themselves especially thanks to Spalova and Ssuschke. Nevertheless, a considerable deficit of seven points was never reduced to less than two and the winners of Pool C never let PROSTEJOV to come closer. Local coach Miroslav Cada said: “The biggest difference between the teams was to be seen in the serving area. The guests were much better there as well as in attacking and in our team we could not find a hitter that would excel as Osmokrovic did today. Our blockers played both well but still it was not enough to stop Fenerbahce from rolling.”

Pool D

A wonderful and tight fight between two of the best European teams, Asystel NOVARA and Zarechie ODINTSOVO finished after five long and tough sets. In the end, the Russians prevailed with Tatyana Kosheleva being awarded as the MVP of the game. In first set,the Italians enjoyed quite a good start leading 8:4 at first technical time-out. The guests, thanks to Kosheleva’s powerful spikes, got back into the fight to tie at 9. Local favourite Cristina Barcellini set the tone for the provisional 14:9. Asystel goes straight on to end the set victoriously with American Logan Tom standing out. ODINTSOVO then led the run in the second set (7:8). Coach Pankov substituted Pequeno with Markova, the Russians are extremely effective with their serves and tie the count. In the third set it’s again ODINTSOVO that maintains the leadership in the score, with Kosheleva being really unstoppable. At 16:21 coach Luciano Pedullà called a time-out, but the Russians didn’t stop their run until the end of the set (19-25). Again the fourth set featured a very tight start, Pequeno scored a break for Zarechie (8:12), but Valeria Rosso, with a block, closed for NOVARA forcing coach Pankov to call a time-out. Valeria Rosso, Cristina Barcellini and Logan Tom played a key role in evening the set count. The tie break was, once more, a real battle: after a provisional tie at 5, ODINTSOVO got a break and led 5:8 as teams changed sides. Kosheleva ans some mistakes of the Italians then pave the way for the final 9-15. “It was not a very good game for our team – said Paola Paggi, Asystel captain, but we needed this game to try out our setter Kim and to improve our recent performances”. Luciano Pedullà added: “I think it was a very enjoyable game for the audience, I am just sad with the result”. Best wishes from Vadim Pankov to the Italian team: “It was a good occasion for both teams to test their skills, and I really wish to meet again Novara in the Champions League, but in the final!”

The Polish Champion Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNIANKA notched its last game in Pool D against Romanian Metal GALATI. For the Polish team it was a very important game, a chance to get back into the right rhythm. They were also fighting for a good rank in Pool D before the DOL for the Playoffs 12. The expectations of the local supporters were also very high and the local girls did not disappoint them. “We really wanted to win this game because in this way the promotion to the next round would have had a much better taste. I am happy also that the girls after some bad moments in the second set could find the way to fix their problems” says coach Bogdan Serwinski. The Polish team scored 18 blocks tonight and the Romanian only 8. These statistics already mark the differences to be seen on court. “We played a very bad game, probably our worst in this year’s edition of the Champions League. We were tired after our long travel but the team from Muszyna played very well tonight. We are sorry for our game especially for the great fans that attended the match here” said the coach of the Romanians, Branko Kovacevic. Top scorers for the home team were Dorota Pykosz, Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza and Aleksandra Jagielo, who all clipped 10 points. For Metal GALATI Latvian Olga Tocko made 11 points and Croatian Jelena Alajbeg added 10.