Tours VB maintains dominance in Pool F by winning last league round match – Volleyball news
France’s Tours VB posted 3-1 (25-13, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20) victory over Slovenian ACH Volley Ljubljana on Wednesday, January 18.
It was the last match of League Round of 2012 CEV Men’s Champions League in Pool F. Tours VB was tagged as the guest team and had to fight the double challenge in the match.
However, the French hotshots proved the metal of their forearms and beat the hosts in front of their supporters. Tours VB won the match and secured top slot in the group.
David Konecny of France emerged as the best player of the match. He contributed match-high 24 points and played a big part in his team’s victory.
On the other hand, the home team was supported by Alen Sket, who put up a courageous effort and added 21 points. Elsewhere, Flajs of Slovenia and Smith of Tours went into double-digit scores. They scored 15 and 13 points, respectively.
Tours VB started off slow and spent some time to grasp the game plan of Slovenian opponents. The hosts scored a couple of points and went up on the scoreboard, while the French players settled down in their positions and started the counter attacks a little
later. They came up with nice cross-court shots and also added points on tricky bump passes.
Promptly, the scoreboard showed better status of French team. Tours picked up lead at 5-4 and then kept the operations well under hand until the set points. ACH Volley called first timeout at 6-11 and asked for the second break at 9-19. Home coach Igor Kolaković
called in Čebulj, Ropret and Klobučar as better substitutions but nothing worked out. Tours VB proved to be better and sent 25-13 on board to win the set.
Second frame of the game was a point-to-point battle between two teams. Tours VB played with the confidence of one set win in hand, while ACH Volley was raged up with the loss of previous set. Home players attacked from all angles and tried different ways
to down the opposite side. The hard work of Slovenian team paid off and they eventually managed to tie the game score at 1-1 by winning second set. They captured the second set with narrow margin of two points, 25-23.
The rowdy home fans jumped out of their seats when the team captured second set but Tours VB put them to sleep again with back-to-back set victories in the next two frames. The visitors capitalised in third and fourth set by scoring 25-21 and 25-20, and
declared match victory.
The mentor of ACH Volley Igor Kolaković regretted the loss of top slot but complimented Tours for a better game. He stated, “TOURS VB has proved to be the better team. We had our chances but did not take advantage of the opportunity.”
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