Guaguas claim away win over Calcit KAMNIK to progress to 16th Finals

On Wednesday night, CDV Guaguas LAS PALMAS secured another victory over Calcit KAMNIK to progress to the 16^th Finals of the CEV Cup. The Spanish team defeated the hosts in four sets (26-24, 19-25, 25-21, 25-21). Jan Klobučar of Calcit KAMNIK and Yadrian Escobar Silva of Guaguas were the most prolific scorers, both on 17 points.

The Spanish national champions, who were unsuccessful in the Champions League qualifiers in the first round against the Bulgarian team of Hebar PAZARDZHIK, last week defeated Calcit in their domestic hall without losing a set. With a good reception shown in Las Palmas, the Slovenians could have returned home in a much better position. In the return match, however, the Slovenian cup winners were even better than the Spaniards in many aspects of the game, but that was not enough to reach at least the Golden Set. In the key moments of the match, the hosts made too many mistakes, on top of an excellent performance of the Cuban opposite Yadrian Escobar Silva, who did not play in the first match for the Spaniards.

Matija Pleško, head coach of Calcit Volley: “Compared to the first match, we kept the reception at a high level all the time, and the match was quite open, but we lost it on a few easy balls. At that time, the players may not find it so important and think, okay it is 4-2 instead of 3-3, but when the set comes over 20 and the opponent is of a good level, he punishes you. We had four, five balls today that we should have turned into our points and I am sure that would outweigh the scales but we did not. Although Hernandez played as a receiver, and instead of him Escobar as an opposite, nothing surprised us, as we were ready for that. In short, however, there are high-level players who can decide the match on their own and Escobar was in the mood today, but it could have been different. We lost those easy balls and we had to pay for that.”