Giovanni and Naz
“I am very proud of my team as the players showed their best team spirit and also individually they performed well” commented home mentor Teun Buijs. “Before the match we talked a lot about our tactics and what we wanted to show. The most important thing was to fight for each ball. I have seen my team progress a lot in three months since I started working with this group.”
Atom Trefl recorded 57% of efficiency in reception but VakifBank put on a great show with 24 block stuffs in the end while SOPOT registered 14. The home heroines lacked efficiency in attack as their opposite Anna Podolec scored only nine points (17%) and her back-up Judith Pietersen chipped in with only three (14%).
On the other side of the net, Carolina Costagrande and Jovana Brakočević scored 19 points apiece thereby making the difference for the Turkish giant.
“Everyone knows that VakifBank is a real Volleyball titan and we got to realize that they were going to have the upper hand in this match as well. However, we are happy with our performance and with what we showed in the first set” commented SOPOT captain Izabela Belcik. “Starting with the second set the course of the game changed but this is mainly due to what our opponents showed. They played harder, improved their block and they exactly knew where we were going to spike.”
“It was very tough to keep the pace of our opponent but we did so at least in defense. They made the difference in attack and exploited our mistakes. We have to learn to play with the same intensity for 22-23 points. We can take good lessons from this game and since we have a couple of important matches coming up in the national league we shall be able to improve on the things where there is still room for improvement” Teun Buijs added.
Though they won in the end, VakifBank lost the first set 19-25 and did not perform well at all there. “We knew that this was going to be a tough match for us and they kept us away from the net especially in the first set. However, we improved our defence and this made things much more difficult for our opponent. We hope that next week we can play the same way we did here starting from the second set” commented VakifBank setter Naz Aydemir.
“I am happy that my team came back after a very slow start and that we eventually won. It was definitely the hardest game this season so far and have to congratulate SOPOT for what they have done and showed tonight” concluded VakifBank mentor Giovanni Guidetti.
For more similar articles click on CEV Champions League 2013/2014 W.
