BAKU defeats BERGAMO by 3-1 in preliminaries of CEV Volleyball Women’s Champions League
The preliminary round of the 2012 CEV Volleyball Women’s Champions League are currently underway in several European cities. One of the pool play matches saw the Azerrail BAKU team compete with the Norda Foppapedretti BERGAMO of Italy. The match took place
on December 7th and was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was the second time that the BAKU squad was appearing in the pool play matches and they were able to score their second consecutive win by defeating their opponents 3-1.
When the four set long match reached its close, the BAKU squad was found to be celebrating their well deserved win at the following final set scores: 25-15, 25-19, 22-25 and 25-22. The victory gave the home crowd of 2,500 BAKU fans much to cheer about.
The first set of the match saw the BERGAMO take the lead early on at 6-2 but the BAKU squad did not let their opponents get away with the advantage and were able to cross BERGAMO and take the lead for themselves at 8-6. However, the Italians were in no mood
to give up just yet and pushed forwards until they had the advantage back with themselves at 16-9.however, BAKU did not lose their determination and got to the set win at 25-15.
Building on the confidence generated by winning the first set of the game, the BAKU team was able to start off strong in the second set and get themselves the lead at 8-2. The home team was able to hold their advantage and were still leading at the coming
of the second technical time out at 16-5. The BERGAMO team was able to close in the gap at 17-12 but they could not overtake their opponents who got themselves another set win at 25-19.
The third set of the game was the most competitive as both the teams stayed neck to neck with each for the major part of the frame. However, it was the BERGAMO squad that was able to avoid a clean sweep by bagging the frame at 25-22.
The home team was determined to end the fourth frame on their terms and despite a valiant effort by the BERGAMO, the BAKU squad won the frame at 25-22.
The captain of the winning BAKU team, Oksana Parkhomenko, shared her jubilation at the press conference conducted after the match in the following words: “It was a very tough match for us. We were expecting a real battle even though our opponent looked a
little tired.”
On the other hand, the star player of the Italian side, Francesca Piccinini, shared her views by giving the following statements: “We have to concentrate on our next matches and qualify for the next stage of the competition, this is our absolute priority.”
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