Czech team suffers home loss in prelims of 2012 CEV Women’s Champions League
VK Modranska PROSTEJOV, one of the top volleyball clubs in the Czech Republic, hosted Switzerland’s Volero ZÜRICH on Wednesday, December 7. Despite having the stupendous emotional support of local fans, the Czech ladies could only secure one set in the whole
match. In response, the Swiss side pulled off success in three sets and posted 3-1 (25-21, 25-12, 15-25, 25-15) victory. The second round of the play for Pool C teams helped Swiss team to bag a win after the loss of their previous match to Atom Trefl SOPOT.
Opening set was closely contested. Both teams displayed good action on the net and jumped on every little opportunity to score points. The first five points were scored on back-to-back attack attempts but the Swiss side pushed the hosts behind with a 5-0
run and rallied past to 10-5 lead. Local ladies put up a valiant effort and narrowed the gap of points at 17-18 before Volero added a flurry of points and closed first set, 25-21.
The start of second set featured the same theme. Both team exchanged long rallies and attacked aggressively. The pumped Czech Republic team played fast and tried to cover the deficit. However, the Volero squad stopped them right away with solid blocks. They
restricted the hosts to a low score and achieved set points. PROSTEJOV could only score 12 points in second set and suffered the loss of another set in row.
The tempo of the game suddenly slowed down in third set as the Swiss team caught up in unforced mistakes. It created the perfect opportunity for home squad to get out of their hole. They scored consecutive points and claimed a third-set win by 25-15.
Even though 500 fans were there to entice the home team girls, they failed to carry the momentum in fourth set. Volero bounced back in the game and clinched success by capturing fourth set, 25-15. Swiss ladies earned 3-1 win over hosts in 95 minutes.
The mentor of Volero, Svetlana Ilic, seemed delighted about the success of his team. He stated: “We had a good approach to this match, emotionally, physically and tactically. The complete team performed well tonight and I am not speaking only about the starting
six as our back up players did also help much in fine tuning the preparations”
Likewise, the skipper Mandy Wigger shared her thoughts on the match and said: “We had a great start and our first two sets were just great. However, we made many mistakes in set 3 and our blocking was not that solid anymore. However, we stuck to our tactics
and it finally worked.”
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