A surprisingly smooth victory for Calcit Volley

Calcit KAMNIK easily defeated Lycurgus GRONINGEN 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-17) at home in the first round of a double header scheduled for the 16^th Finals of the CEV Cup. The re-match will take place next Wednesday in the Netherlands.

Calcit Volley had to reach the Main Draw of the CEV Cup through the qualifiers, where they were in both matches better than their first opponent – SK Zadruga AICH/DOB of Austria. On the other hand, Lycurgus were placed directly among the 32 top teams of the CEV Cup.

Matija Pleško’s team opened the match in the best possible way. They were the one putting pressure with serves and with Luis Sosa Sierra’s ace, they stormed to a 5-1 early lead. Their block worked just fine too (Daniel Aponza was successful for 7-2) and their attacks very effective as well (Nik Mujanović for 9-3). Even after Arjan Taaij’s time-out, the home team kept the reins of the game in their hands and after a new point scored by Sosa Sierra and a mistake by Lycurgus, the score stood at 16-7. Before entering the end of the set, Sosa Sierra stopped the visitors’ attack with a block, and the advantage of ten points (22-12) was more than enough for Calcit Volley to take a 1-0 lead in the match, with the final point scored by their youngster, Nik Mujanović.

After an initial 3-0 lead for the home side in the second set, the Dutch, who made ten errors in the first set alone, tied the score on the fourth point, but Mujanović, with a successful attack and a block, again provided a slightly larger advantage for the Kamnik team. After two more errors of the players from Groningen and a block by Aponza, Kamnik's advantage increased to five points (11-6). With Jacob Kern’s block, the Dutch got to two points behind (13-11), and after a successful spike by the Canadian opposite, only one point would separate the two teams (16-15). After a half-minute break by Matija Pleško, Calcit came back to a more significant advantage - courtesy of a 6-1 run. Miloš Arsenoski scored the last point at the net. With a block by Uroš Pavlović, Calcit reached six set points, and after a new mistake by the visitors from the service line, they doubled their lead in the match.

Lycurgus took a 1-0 lead at the beginning of the third set, which was their first lead of the match, but Calcit quickly turned the score around. Arsenoski’s ace moved it to 13-7, so Dutch coach Taaij took a time-out. Another mistake of the Dutch team followed, and a seven-point lead ensured the runners-up from the last edition of the Slovenian national league could look for a somewhat more relaxed continuation of the set. Even though the Dutch came within four points (17-13), a block by Arsenoski made it 19-13 for Calcit Volley. The visiting coach took his second time-out, with which he stopped the run of the home team for a moment, but the last rallies fully belonged to the Kamnik team, which celebrated their resounding victory after a point scored by Jan Klobučar.