Fenerbahçe Opet ISTANBUL celebrate the first victory in the second leg of the 4th Round at Champions League. Second in the table before the match, the team keeps its position in Pool B table, now with 9 points. Melissa Vargas was the top scorer of her team, leading Fenerbahce with 19 points.

Fenerbahce dominated the match from first moments, taking an early 8-5 lead that soon was extended to 17-12. The five-point gap did not overwhelm NANTES, who slowly made their way back to 23-21, forcing Fenerbahce to take a time out. The Turkish side kept cool heads, winning the opening set 25-22. Melissa Vargas was Fenerbahce’s top scorer in the first set, succeeding with 9 out of 12 attempted attacks. The second part seemed more competitive between both teams and while Fenerbahce led the scoreboard, Nantes remained close behind in the first half of the set. A powerful block and strong spike by Brankica Mihajlovic made it 18-12 for the Turkish side. Fenerbahce were keen to not waste the point gap and continued their dominance until they secured a set at 25-16.
The French team did not stand down, as they kept a tight score in the third set, making it level at 12-12, but Fenerbahce were not planning on letting the score turn against them as they secured the final set 25-20.

• Melissa Vargas was named the best player of the match, scoring 19 points for her team - 18 in attack and one in block

• Her team-mate Nur Babat was the best blocker in the match with 5 points scored in that element

• On the other side of the net, Yaremis Mendaro scored 15 points for VB Nantes

• Despite having the same points as A. Carraro Imoco CONEGLIANO in the Pool B, Fenerbahce remains second in the table due to worse set ratio

• This was the second Champions League encounter between VB Nantes and Fenerbahce in Mangin Beaulieu. Just like back in December 2014, VB Nantes lost in straight sets.

• Like in the first leg in Conegliano last month, Lauren Schad's team lost in three sets with a total of 48 points scored.

• Nantes did better on the scoreboard today, offering more resistance against the athletic Turkish side. Even if the final result is the same (0-3), "Nantes fought harder and showed a better face" according to coach Cyril Ong, scoring up to 58 points.

Zoran Terzic, coach of Fenerbahçe Opet ISTANBUL: “Before the game we were discussing some tactics, but final conclusion is that if we will play with a lot of motivation and energy it will probably be a 3-0 game for us. And finally it was like this. I cannot say that we played on our highest level but we played good enough today to win 3-0 and this is the most important thing.”

Kelsey Robinson, outside spiker of Fenerbahçe Opet ISTANBUL: "I thought we played really consistent and when the other side pushed we responded well. I’m so happy to get the 3-0 win."

Cyril ONG, head coach of VB Nantes: “At the end of the game, it’s a mix of different feelings. I think that we could have done better in some situations, but against us there was a team that can accelerate very fast. When it happened, it was very complicated for us. According to me, we play pretty and we did our best regarding our opponent. We showed a better face than last Saturday: I’m very satisfied about that. Tomorrow, we will have to rise our level and try to win”.

Lucie Dekeukelaire, Libero of VB Nantes: “We did some good things but we still do some errors. We were ahead and they came up to finally go ahead us whereas we had a good start. We helped them to get close to us. We'll have to be more consistent in the next game. We have to get the point anytime we have the opportunity. We've made some progress, let's keep it that way for the rest of the tournament.”