Zaytsev leads Lube to fourth #CLVolleyM win in Super Match of the Week
Match Report
Italy’s Cucine Lube Civitanova secured its spot in the men’s CEV Champions League Volley 2023 after the pool stage of the competition by claiming its fourth consecutive win in Pool C. On Wednesday evening, Lube took a 3-0 (25-23, 25-13, 25-17) home victory over France’s Tours VB to stay unbeaten on top of the pool standings on a 4-0 win-loss record and 11 points. Tours is second on 2-2 and six points, above Belgium’s Knack Roeselare on 2-2 and five points, with two legs to go.
The first set was very competitive and the first time the gap exceeded one point was after 10-10, when two spiking points in a row by Marlon Yant, followed up by a kill block from Simone Anzani, gave Lube a 13-10 lead. Tours kept up the fight and battled its way back to within one at 22-21, but that was only as close as the French team could get. Ivan Zaytsev hammered the set winner at 25-23.
A successful swing and an ace by Leandro Nascimento produced the first two points of the second set. Aleksandar Nikolov, however, garnished a five-point Lube run with an ace and a back-row swing as his team broke away with a 7-3 lead and never looked back. The rest of the set was completely one-sided, with Nikolov and Zaytsev swinging away and the latter contributing another two aces towards an emphatic 25-13 win.
Tours once again took the first two points in the third set, but could not hold on to its early lead for long. With Zaytsev keeping up the fire in offence, Lube gradually built up a lead that went as wide as eight points. Finally, sub-in Mattia Bottolo delivered the match point with a spectacular pipe for 24-16 and a rally later he converted it himself with a kill for 25-17.
Opposite Ivan Zaytsev topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 19 points to his name, including three aces and two kill blocks, and earned the Most Valuable Player nomination. Outside hitters Aleksandar Nikolov and Marlon Yant added 10 points each towards Lube’s victory. Aboubacar Drame Neto was the only Tours player to reach the double digits with 11 points.
Ivan Zaytsev“We are very happy for the win and for the team’s performance, especially for what we did in the second and in the third sets, when everything was working very well on our side of the court. I don’t know if we have already secured the first position, and honestly I think it doesn’t matter, because when you play for such an great club like Civitanova you play to win every game. So we will do in the remaining two matches.”
Opposite of Cucine Lube Civitanova, MVP of the match
Marcelo Fronckowiak“After a balanced first set, we totally disappeared from the court, and of course, I can’t be happy for this. We didn’t show the right attitude for such an important match and I will talk to my players about this. On the other side, I also want to congratulate Civitanova for their great performance.”
Head coach of Tours VB