Poland assert authority over Azerbaijan in quarter-finals – Volleyball news
The Azerbaijani team gave the Polish side all it could handle on Wednesday night in the first match of quarter-finals of 2012 CEV Women’s Champions League before finally succumbing to the Poles in four sets.
The Atom Trefl SOPOT dropped the first set but came back firing in the following sets and pulled off success. The final set scores were 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, and 26-24. The match lasted for almost two hours and eventually ended up in the favour of Polish
team.
The Atom players kicked off the action with convincing serves and powerful shots, while Natalia Mammadova of Baku responded with great serves. Polish side stayed ahead of Baku with a minimal margin before the visiting team came into power with 8-5 lead.
Polish libero Paulina Maj and young receiver Ewelina Sieczka put up a good fight and struggled to catch up with the opposite side.
The home team called the first timeout at 15-19, whereas Baku asked for timeout at 17-19. By the time Poles scored 19 points, the Azerbaijani took their score to 23. They maintained the lead until the set points and finally closed the first set at 25-22.
Following the loss of opening set, the hosts followed a different strategy. They formed new combinations and directed the ball in rare gaps on the other side of the net. With fine display of volleys, the Atom ladies went up.
The Head Coach Zoran Gajic backed up the team and guided the players through difficult situations. Alisha Glass, the Polish setter, helped the team to deal with the 2011 World Champion Rabita Baku. She put the team in lead at 25-22.
Moreover, Megan Hodge joined hands with Glass and further stretched the gap of points. The visiting team ended up scorning 22 points, while the hosts achieved set points at 25.
Success in second set restored the confidence of local players and they displayed power in the third set. Rabita Baku jumped to a lead of two points at 8-6 but it did not impress the Poles. They remained remarkably consistent and pushed the visitors behind
14-11. Baku used different attack tactics to retake lead but faced huge resistance. The Atom Trefl SOPOT finally wrapped third-set win by posting 25-20 on board.
The home team trailed behind for better time in fourth set but displayed good effort in the end. They closed the fourth set with the final score of 26-24 and announced a 3-1 match victory.
Atom Trefl SOPOT captain Izabela Belcik was simply overjoyed with the overwhelming victory over the stronger opponent. She expressed her emotions in the following manner, “I have no idea of what happened today, why we played that well. We finally showed
what we can. And we managed to take everything we could out of the last training sessions.”
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