Dukla LIBEREC through to #CEVCupW Playoff round in emphatic fashion
News
Dukla LIBEREC have reached the Playoff stage of the women’s CEV Volleyball Cup following two victories in as many matches with Hungary’s European Cups rookies Szent Benedek BALATONFÜRED. Last week, Dukla had claimed a 3-1 away victory to set their sights firmly on making it to the next round of the competition – and they easily wrapped things up courtesy of a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-17, 25-17, 25-23) on home soil.
Libor Gálík“We expected a more difficult game. Our start to the match was excellent as we did not let the Hungarian team any chance to develop and play their game. I think that my girls, who usually do not feature in our starting line-up, played well, too.”
Head coach of Dukla LIBEREC
Dukla did set the pace from start to finish of the first set (8-4, 17-9, 18-12); some changes to the starting six helped the visitors from Hungary cut the deficit to 18-15 but after a Czech time-out, Dukla resumed their march and eventually won the first set at a canter (25-17). Szent Benedek soon trailed 2-6 in the second set and the course of the match did not change at all later on – with Dukla leading the way by a massive margin (19-8) and courtesy of their 25-17 win and 2-0 lead in the match, at this stage the Czechs had made sure they would continue their journey in the Playoff round. The third set did not mean much but it was a much closer affair, with Dukla eventually sealing a 25-23 win to complete a 3-0 victory.
Nikola Kvapilová, captain of Dukla LIBEREC: “It is definitely a big success for us. The opponent played quite bad. I think that we play better games with opponents from the lower section of the standings in the Czech league. We are obviously happy to have reached the next round.”
Evelin Vacsi, captain of Szent Benedek BALATONFÜRED: “We came here to win. We wanted to win for sure. I think we were well prepared, but we made many small mistakes, and many mistakes with our serve.”
Kristian Michailov, coach of Szent Benedek BALATONFÜRED: “Congratulations to the Dukla team. Our game was not as we wanted. We were well prepared, but this is sport. We are moving on to the next challenge.”