Trentino Too Powerful Against Perugia, Another Failure From ZAKSA in Poland

This weekend, the biggest favorites of the #CLVolleyM took the court against their strong opponents in the domestic leagues. While Trentino became victorious in the most anticipated clash of the weekend against the World champions Perugia, the ZAKSA side suffered another defeat in Poland, and Halkbank remained undefeated in Türkiye.

Two CEV Champions League Volley squads, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia and Itas Trentino, met in the tenth round of the Italian SuperLega. After being the world champions, Perugia aimed to continue playing at the top level. On the other hand, except the third set, domestic titleholder Trentino played the end of the sets better and took a four-set victory (3-1: 25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23).

Luxembourgian opposite Kamil Rychlicki once again shone with his performance: Including three aces and two blocks, he became the top scorer of the match with 21 points in total. Domestic players Alessandro Michieletto who also was honored with MVP, and Daniele Lavia also helped their team win, scoring 18 and 17 points, respectively.

We saw a more balanced score distribution on the losing side where four players managed to score in double digits: Wassim Ben Tara (18), Kamil Semeniuk (15), Oleh Plotnytskyi (13), and Flavio Resende (11) did their best, which was not enough to leave the court with a win.

Trentino, therefore, rose to first place and once again stood at the top of the standings with only one defeat in ten matches. Perugia fell to the vice-leader position, followed by Piacenza, Monza, and Lube Civitanova.

Bad days continued for reigning CEV Champions League Volley champion Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle: They hosted Projekt Warszawa in the 12th leg of the Polish Plusliga. Even though the ZAKSA side started to match quite powerfully and found a 1-0 lead in sets, Warszawa then started to push their limits and overpowered their strong rival by 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-22).

Polish opposite Bartlomiej Boladz was selected as the MVP of the game with his impressive 22 points, and his compatriot Artur Szalpuk tallied 15. Bartosz Bednorz, with 18, and Jakub Szymanski, with 15, were the most productive players on the losing side.

Due to this result, ZAKSA took their third successive defeat in the national league, which placed them in ninth place. They have to regain their power and play at a high level as soon as possible if they want to reach top spots in the regular season.

Things continued to go well for the Turkish powerhouse Halkbank Ankara: They faced Galatasaray HDI Sigorta in the eleventh leg of the Turkish Efeler League. With a superior game throughout the match, they maintained their perfect record and continued their way undefeated.