Coach Spanakis had to make do without his star outside hitter Da Silva for the clash in Cantù, but the team never gave up and forced the hosts to play a fifth set. Civita deserves praise for the way it fought hard in spite of the injuries and for being so well-organised tactically.

“That was an important game for many reasons. We were close to clinch it without our two outside hitters, and it’s never easy to win in Cantù – said coach Spanakis – Before the game we reminded ourselves how important was the group, we told ourselves we’d try to play our volleyball no matter who would be in the line-up. Only in the second set our level dropped. Shame we started poorly that fifth set but we remain third at the halfway point of the season, an excellent result for the Italian Cup too”.