Top Volley Latina-Halkbank Ankara 2-3 (22-25, 26-24, 19-25, 27-25, 12-15)
Top Volley Latina: Rossi 5, Sottile 2, Urnaut 8, van de Voorde 9, Starovic 25, Rauwerdink 19; Manià (L), Pellegrino, Skrimov 11, Tailli (L). DNP: Ferenciac, Semenzato. Coach. Blengini
Halkbank Ankara: Kiyak 3, Juantorena 14, Tekeli 5, Sokolov 27, Kubiak 19, Batur 8; Sahin (L), Esko, Gunes 7, Subasi 2. DNP: Aksoy, Avvazoglu. Coach.: Bernardi
A good crowd came to remember Roberto Rondoni, former coach and member of the Latina staff. For his second memorial, Latina played host to Ankara, who won it at the tie-break. “We had a difficult start when they played at a very good rhythm but then we loosened up a bit and stayed close – explained coach Blengini – We never gave up, even when we found ourselves trailing in the score. We managed to fight back against one of the strongest teams in Europe. Juantorena was key in the third set, he turned it around thanks to his serves, while in the fifth we struggled to deal with their floater. This was a good test, in terms of mentality too, a good starting point”.
