Night of Champions and night of chills for Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia.
The Block Devils, in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the top continental competition reserved for clubs, have to sweat the proverbial seven shirts to get the better of an excellent Berlin Recycling Volleys. Perugia goes down twice, fights, suffers, doesn’t lose his bearings and in the fourth set he raises his voice on the serve and block, finally weakening the resistance of the German team and detaching the pass for the semifinal. In the ite break, with space for both roses, the hosts win it 15-13.
A match for strong hearts in Pian di Massiano, a match of great technical and temperamental level, a match that the hosts have the merit of never leaving, not even when Berlin reaches a partial from the golden set. That’s where the character and compactness of the Block Devils come out, there comes the makings of Anastasi’s champions who team up and turn the challenge around.
The final numbers reward the black and whites who mainly use service (8 aces against 6) and blocks (15 against 10) to get the better of it.
Tonight’s Mvp is taken by the Ukrainian phenomenon Oleh Plotnytskyi who ends with 18 points, 3 aces, 61% in attack, 1 block and several games to be applauded. Double figures also for Leon (18 with 3 aces and 4 blocks), Rychlicki (16 points), Solè (15 with 4 blocks) and Russo (14 with 5 blocks).
Perugia goes ahead in Europe. Perugia returns to the PalaBarton tomorrow because on Saturday, again in Pian di Massiano, the playoff quarter-finals kick off with game 1 against Allianz Milano.
Roberto Russo (Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia): “It’s the quarter-finals of the Champions League and nobody is giving you anything. Berlin Recycling Volleys came here to play it and it showed. They beat very well and put us in trouble. But the important thing was to go to the semifinals and I’m happy with the victory.”
THE TABLE
SIR SICOMA MONINI PERUGIA – BERLIN RECYCLING VOLLEYS 3-2
Partials: 24-26, 25-21, 22-25, 25-17, 15-13
SIR SICOMA MONINI PERUGIA: Giannelli, Rychlicki 16, Russo 14, Solè 15, Semeniuk 1, Plotnytskyi 18, Colaci (free), Leon 16, Piccinelli (free), Ropret, Herrera 2, Mengozzi 1. N.e.: Flavio, Cardenas. Coach Anastasi, vice coach Valentini.
BERLIN RECYCLING VOLLEYS: Tille 4, Sotola 23, Mote 16, Brehme 7, Schott 9, Kessel 13, Sato (free), Trinidad de Haro, Ronkainen, Carle 3, Kowalski. NE: Rodrigues. All. Enard, deputy all. Gold.
Referees: Wim Cambré – Vasileios Vasileiadis
THE FIGURES – PERUGIA: 19 bs, 8 aces, 43% ric. pos., 21% rec. prf., 51% land, 15 walls. BERLIN: 17 b.s., 6 aces, 49% rec. pos., 23% rec. prf., 47% landfill, 10 walls.
