What a derby in Nea Smyrni! Panionios Betsson came back from 1-2 down to beat Olympiacos SFP 3-2 (25-20, 18-25, 19-25, 25-14, 15-5) in front of a packed ‘Andreas Varikas’ hall in round 3 of the Volley League Women. That hands the Piraeus side their first defeat of the season, and Panionios stay unbeaten. After Olympiacos took sets two and three behind Taylor Bannister’s serve and block, the hosts dominated set four 25-14. In the tie-break, serve runs from Lamprousi and Isabella Di Iulio built a 10-1 lead, and Vasileva-Atanasijević closed it out 15-5, a 10-point margin.
Milica Kubura, facing her former club, led Panionios with 20 points (18/36 in attack), Vasileva-Atanasijević added 18 and Zakchaiou 9. Bannister top-scored for Olympiacos with 21 points (4 aces), Michaela Mlejnková had 14 and Konstantinou 13. “Congratulations to Panionios, they were better tonight,” said Olympiacos coach Branko Kovačević. “We had energy for three sets. We played a tough match midweek and our roster is not as deep as Panionios’.” Panionios coach Yunus Öçal said: “My players deserved the win.”
