Romania suffers home loss in the Champions League Opener – Volleyball news
The hosts of the Pool B of 2012 CEV Men’s Champions League Romanian team dropped its first match of the tournament to the Netherlands on Friday.
The Sala Polivalenta PIATRA-NEAMT sports stadium in Romanian city PIATRA-NEAMT hosted the match, which concluded in only three sets. The visiting squad proved to be better and stamped 3-0 (28-26, 26-24, and 25-19) victory over Romania. The hosts failed to
profit the competitive edge of playing at home and suffered the early setback in the campaign.
Humphrey KROLIS of Netherland topped all the scorers with match-high 15 points, while Jelte MAAN and Thomas KOELEWIJN also went into double-figure score. They added 13 and 11 points, respectively.
On Romanian side, Dan BOROTA put up a valiant effort and charted team-high 13 points. He was followed by TOFAN Elen Lucian, who added 11 points in the failing effort.
The hosts started out on a high note in the match. Dan Borota hit wonderful shots and created enough trouble for the guest team. Romania led the scores at first technical timeout, 8-5. Romanian setter George Moisa made good use of his hands and helped the
opposite hitters to produce powerful shots.
With a solid performance, Romania maintained its dominance at the second technical timeout. They took the score to 16-13, while the Dutch lagged behind. Home heroes kept an upper hand on the rivals up till the ending moments but then dramatically lost the
first set. Netherlands used a perfect kill to close the opening stanza at 28-26, which sent Romania to the loss of first set.
Things drastically changed for Romania after the loss of opening set. Dutch players got all over the place and put pressure on the home side. The visitors picked up 2-point lead at FTT (8-6). The defensive expert of the Netherlands Gijs Jorna showed quality
in reception and saved many crucial points. Romanians came from different angles but faced utmost resistant from the opposite side.
MAAN enabled the Oranjes to keep the lead at second technical timeout (16-15). Romanian team seemed worried about the way things were really going. Dutch, on the other hand, firmly held the lead in hand and improved to 2-0 by winning second set (26-24).
Netherland started out well in third set as well and led the score. Despite putting a lot of effort, Romania trailed behind. Dutch rallied form 8-7 to 16-11 and did not allow Romania to come up. Maan and Krolis were absolutely not to stop and the Dutch squad
finally finished the job in straight sets (25-19).
Dutch team will return to action on Saturday when they take on Turkey. On the other hand, Romania will go against Czech Republic.
Tags: