A. Carraro Imoco CONEGLIANO are only one match away from a perfect record in the 4th Round, as the Italian team recorded another victory without losing a single set. Competing against the second leg hosts VB NANTES, Italians brought in Paola Egonu back to the line-up, who unsurprisingly was the top scorer of the match with 21 points. Nantes suffered another loss on the home court, remaining third in Pool B and are down to face Calcit Volley KAMNIK on their last day of the competition.

Conegliano approached the match bringing back Robin De Kruijf, Kimberly Hill and Paola Egonu into the line-up, after all three players rested on Tuesday night when their team faced Calcit Volley KAMNIK. Italians led the opening set from its first minutes, but the major point gap was achieved when Loveth Omoruyi stepped on the service line, allowing her team to go from 14-16 to 14-18 ahead. Conegliano finished the set 20-25, with Paola Egonu establishing herself as the top scorer already. Nantes seemed to hold on closer to the Italian club at the beginning of the second set, closing on a three-point gap at 14-14. Conegliano regained their control once more, patiently increasing the point difference until the set finished 20-25. The last set was probably the most competitive between both sides as Nantes caught up with every single point-gap achieved by the Italians. The French chased the score from 18-23 to 23-23, putting Conegliano at the brink of losing their perfect score in this edition of the Champions League. Both teams continued point by point until Italians eventually ended the match at 24-26.

• It was the gala game this Wednesday evening for the VB Nantes, in their gymnasium of Mangin Beaulieu behind closed doors.

• Coach Cyril Ong’s players had the honour to face Imoco Conegliano, club world champion and big favourite in this Champions League competition this season. Already in the same group last season, the two teams faced their fourth clash this evening since December 2019, with the same final outcome on the scoreboard (3-0 for Conegliano).

• With the excellent performance in the cast of Imoco volleyball, Joanna Wolosz was awarded the title of MVP of the game. 

• For their part, as during the tournament in December in Italy, the VB Nantes team while having nothing to play for in this competition, will be keen to win against the formation of Calcit Volley Kamnik, tomorrow at 18:00 local time.
  

Joanna Wolosz, captain of A.Carraro Imoco Conegliano and MVP today:
"We are happy to have finished in three sets, it's important for us to save energy, when we play each day. We could have done better because we didn't have a great match, Nantes played much more aggressively than before. We expected it, but despite some errors, we quickly won an important match. Now we have to recover our energy because Fenerbahce will be a very strong rival and it will take a 100% of our performance, maybe more to beat them. Our goal is to repeat the "tris" of the December tournament, now we take the most difficult last step.”

Cyril ONG, coach of VB Nantes: “I’m a little disappointed for the last set because I would have liked that we pushed a little more and end up winning it. We had a good game tonight with more quality and character. This is what I will remember. There was a good fight in defense and we tried to push them to their limits. We played better than yesterday and showed a better attitude as well. We must remain in this dynamic for the match of tomorrow and especially not fall back into our mental failings. We will have to fight tomorrow.

Lauren Schad, middle blocker of VB Nantes:
“We’re all very proud of how we played. They’re obviously an amazing team and I think the way we fought was very noteworthy. We continued to play and be aggressive. Granted we made mistakes and we had errors but they were aggressive and we didn’t let those errors dictate how we reacted after. We’re all very happy and we know if we take that energy and mentality into our next match with Kamnik, I think we can have a really good game. They play a bit differently but they’re a solid team. And we have to respect that. I’m excited to see how we take them on tomorrow.”