Beziers survive thriller in Plovdiv
Report
On Tuesday, VC Maritza Plovdiv and Beziers Volley delivered a great CLVolleyW spectacle at Kolodruma sports hall in the Bulgarian town of Plovdiv. After a hard-fought match that lasted more than two hours, the team of Beziers Volley congratulated themselves with a 3-2 victory.
Maritza, who last Friday won again the Bulgarian Volleyball Cup, missed their chances on seizing first win in Pool D, while for the French this is a second victory (the first one was against Maritza again, in Leg 1, 3-0). This way, one leg before the end of Round 4, Beziers are third placed in the group, while Maritza are fourth but managed to gain their first point in the competition.
The Argentinian rising star Bianca Cugno was above all, and with 23 points to her name, received the MVP award.
Overall, Maritza finished better on attack (58 to 52 winning spikes), on blocking (12 to 10), and scored more on their opponents' errors (34 to 29). Beziers, on the other hand, aced six times (compared to four by Maritza).
- A nail-biting first set marked the beginning of the match. Both the hosts and the guests fought hard for each point for more than half an hour. Maritza showed good skills in defence in the last deciding moments, but their rivals from France converted their fourth set point to a 29-27 win on an off-the-block cross-court hit by Mariena Hayden to take a 1-0 lead.
- The players of Borislav Krachanov started way better in the second set, and kept building a comfortable point difference until 14-10. However, Beziers recovered from a 1-9 deficit to tie the second set at 15-15. A serving spree by Bianca Cugno helped open a 19-15 Beziers lead. A déjà vu from the first set is what the fans at Kolodruma hall witnessed afterwards. After a “cat-and-mouse” game, Maritza showed nerves of steel, leveling back the score at 19-19 and pushing on to win by 25-23, with Simona Dimitrova hammering the winner with a cross-court spike. Both teams delivered the same performance (13 winning spikes, 4 kill blocks). One ace and three more own errors were crucial for Maritza in this set.
- However, in the third set, the French dominated on the court, gradually building a point difference, while the Bulgarians let too many errors affect the score (10 to four). It was Cugno again behind the serving line as Beziers broke away with a 15-7 lead in set three. Maritza denied four opponent set points before serving long to end the third set at 25-17 Beziers' way.
- Silvana Chausheva led the way in set four and closed it herself with a blistering shot for 25-16. At 6-5 in the fifth set, Aleksandra Milanova sustained an injury, but recovers quickly to stay on. However, Beziers won the fifth set and the match on a long serve by Dima Usheva - 15-12.
- Bianca Cugno topped the charts with 23 points, while for Maritza Simona Dimitrova was the best with 17 points.
Bianca Cugno"It was not an easy game to play, but we've been preparing for it. Maritza changed the way they were playing. It was hard for us at the beginning, but we were able to adapt to what they were doing tonight and that's why we won the game. We are so happy with the victory and we hope we will do a good job in the next game too."
Opposite of Beziers Volley and MVP of the match
Ivelina Monova"We were close. I congratulate the team of Beziers, but I also congratulate my team! We played well, we fought and it was very little that we lacked to win the match. We will analyze it in the days to come and come out against Dinamo Kazan even more motivated."
Libero and captain of Maritza Plovdiv