BR Volleys and Zenit St. Petersburg through to the quarter-finals after a thrilling SuperMOTW

In their first encounter ever, Zenit Saint Petersburg and Berlin Recycling Volleys locked horns in the Super Match of the Week in the last leg of Round 4 of CEV Champions League, delivering one of the most intriguing matches in this #CLVolleyM season so far. 

Pool D leaders, the Germans, who are playing their tenth consecutive Champions League season, showed mental strength, and after losing the first two sets, came back to eventually emerge victorious at 3-2, and secure the first place in the group (with 14 points before tomorrow’s matchup against the same opponent). The BR Volleys therefore reach the quarter-finals of the best eight teams in Europe for the second time in a row. It is the first time in their club history when Berlin Recycling Volleys enter the knockout phase of the CEV Champions League as group winners.

On the other hand, Zenit’s head coach, Tuomas Sammelvuo, who celebrated his birthday this Wednesday, had a reason to celebrate as well. Since his team grabbed a point from the fixture, they also qualify for the next stage of Europe’s elite competition based on sets quotient ratio.

Wednesday’s SuperMOTW was full of turnarounds and interesting actions (such as six kill blocks in a row by Zenit in the second set, or the comeback from down eight points by Berlin in the fourth set). 

All five sets were tight ones, but overall Zenit were better on the winning spikes (64 to 56), finishing with five more kill blocks (15 to 10). BR Volleys aced eight times (to five).

- Sammelvuo surprised with his choice of setter - Igor Kobzar started on the bench, while Igor Kolodinsky took over. However, both teams started rather equally (5-4, 7-6). To the delight of the fans in Sibur Arena, this “cat and mouse” game continued after a serie of four points by Berlin (13-10 to 13-14). However, after a close call up until the end, the hosts opened in their favour, finishing better on attack (17 to 13 winning spikes).

- An amazing show was delivered in the second set as well. Zenit took an early lead at 11-5 after as many as six consecutive kill blocks, but the guests showed great resilience and mental strength, pushing back to come back at 13-12. In the deciding moments, however, the players of Sammelvuo were more precise, delivering some sharp attacks, recording two more blocks. A total of eight successful actions on this element turned out to be key to the success, while BR Volleys took all their opportunities to seize on their opponents’ errors (eight).

- After a hard-fought third set, BR Volleys got back in the match, delivering a slightly better performance on attacking (15 to 13; 65% efficiency). 

- When it looked like that Zenit were close to win in four sets (20-15), the players around Cedric Enard delivered an amazing eight-point run, to eventually bring the fixture into a tiebreak. Ruben Schott was the man of the hour, providing the turning point in the match. The German international served seven times (3 aces included) and the momentum moved to Berlin's side. In the tiebreak, BR Volleys emerged victorious, seizing the important victory, topping the charts in Pool D and securing a ticket to the next phase of the competition.

- Benjamin Patch topped the charts with 22 points to his name, grabbing as well the MVP award. A curious fact is that the US-American sprained his ankle on the run-up to the serve and was briefly replaced by Marek Sotola, but was later able to continue and return to the court in set four. He was almost unstoppable later in the tiebreak.