Eczacibasi go six for six to dominate Pool D

The 2015 winners remain unbeaten in Pool D, displaying a great blocking match against Dinamo MOSCOW. Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL came out determined to get that sixth win, even though a win wasn’t necessary to end up on top of the pool. Dinamo needed to win in order to grant them access to the quarterfinals, so their campaign ends in the fourth round. Allianz MTV STUTTGART beat Lokomotiv KALININGRAD Region 3-0 in the final match of Pool D and end up in third place.

In a match with a surprisingly low attacking efficiency (38 % over 33%), Eczacibasi came out flying. Their superstar Tijana Bošković was in great form, she produced seven points in the first set alone. Nine in the third. With scoring that many points the Serbian opposite passed the total of 700 points in the Champions League for Eczacibasi, a mean feat from the lefty.

Dinamo’s hopes were restored after they had won the scond set 25-19, but crushed again when Eczacibasi countered with a 25-14. All hopes of a victory were smashed when the fourth set went to the Turkish team by 25-18.

• Chiaka Ogbogu is the leading blocker by an incredible total of 30 points in six matches with an average of 1,3 block per set
• After Ogbogu comes Beyza Arıcı who has scored 17 block points in six matches
• Today Eczacibasi scored 15 blocks, 6 of them by Ogbogu
• Tijana Bošković scored 29 points, 5 of which were from blocking
• Jordan Thompson and Chiaka Ogbogu scored 14 points each
• Nataliya Gonchareva was top scorer for Dinamo with 12 points

The closing argument in Pool D was made by Allianz MTV STUTTGART, they have won their second match of the campaign, earning themselves a third place in the ranking. Lokomotiv KALININGRAD Region end up in last place with one win. The Russian team didn’t have all of their start at their disposal, so they end up losing all of the matches in their home tournament 3-0.

In December Lokomotiv won the direct confrontation with STUTTGART 3-0, so the German team had feelings of revenge when starting this match. Although Lokomotiv were cheered on by over 2,200 spectators, the Russians were never in a place where they could have decided the match in their favour. Allianz MTV pressed on and doubled their victory count, making sure they ended up third in Pool D.

• Top scorer of the match was Krystal Rivers, she produced 20 points

• MVP was awarded to Michaela Mlejnkova, who scored 14 points

• Top scorer for Lokomotiv was Tatiana Ezhak, also with 20 points

• Last year STUTTGART reached the quarterfinals, this year they were unable to

• Lokomotiv ended third in their 2020 CLVolleyW pool last year, they also dropped one spot