Rabita Baku earns straight set win over Dresdner SC of Germany – 2012 CEV Champions League
Azerbaijan’s Rabita Baku claimed a 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-21) victory against Dresdner SC of Germany at the prelims of the 2012 Champions League women’s volleyball tournament on Wednesday, December 7. The Germans hosted the match but still failed to profit
from the advantage of home court and local fans. On the other hand, the visiting Azerbaijani squad exhibited spectacular performance and walked away with the tag of winners. The prelims of 2012 CEV Champions League are underway since November and they are
supposed to continue to March 2012. The search for Europe’s top professional club is on and twenty women’s teams are fighting for volleyball supremacy.
The Margon Sports Arena in the German city of Dresden set up the field of play for the match. Around 1,600 spectators showed up at the venue, most of which were local supporters. Nonetheless, the visiting team did not take any pressure in the game and cruised
past to an easy straight-set win.
The match opened with the roar of fans, which encouraged the German team to take a good start. They jumped out of the gate and delivered fast spikes coupled with service-aces. As a result, Rabita Baku trailed behind the hosts with a deficit of two points
(3-5). However, they bounced back in the game with the help of heavy thumps and went up (7-5). The visiting team rallied a 5-0 run and promptly moved to 12-5. The Germans tried to catch up with Azerbaijan and scored a couple of points. Meanwhile, Rabita Baku
added more points and took the score to 16-10 at the second technical break. From that point onward, the outsider team did not let the hosts come up and sealed first-set win at 25-22.
Rabita launched full authority on the rival side in the second set and kept the operations well under hand from start to end. They picked up an early lead and stretched out the lead. German ladies failed to match their performance with the resilient rivals
and dropped another set in row. Rabita Baku extended its lead to 2-0 by capturing second set 25-19.
The local audience pushed DRESDNER SC in set 3 but Rabita proved to be too strong for them. Germans lost third set 25-21 and accepted the better status of Rabita.
Anne Matthes of Germany topped all the scorers with match-high 14 points, while Kimberly Glass and Natasa Osmokrovic registered 12 apiece for Rabita.
The Head Coach of home team, Alexander Waibl, regretted the loss of the important home game. He revealed his thoughts after the match and said: “We are not surprised about our first two upsets in this competition. My team did a good job against the stars
from Baku.”
In the next run, the German team is scheduled to take on France’s ASPTT Mulhouse. The French team is still without any victory in the first two rounds of the tournament. Hence, Germans will have a better chance to score victory against visiting team. May
the best team win the match!
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