Panathinaikos regain Greek Women’s Cup title after 12 years
News
It has been a long time coming, but Panathinaikos ATHENS are back in the business of collecting trophies! They claimed the Women’s Greek Cup for the sixth time in the history of the competition but for the first time in as many as twelve years, after coming back from a set down to defeat AO THIRAS Santorini 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-15).
Panagiota ‘Penny’ Rogka played a pivotal role in Panathinaikos’ triumph as the 34-year-old became the first ever libero in the history of the competition to collect the prestigious MVP award.
Penny Rogka“It still has not sunk in. I have been through tough years with Panathinaikos and today’s award is a recognition of that. Liberos are not usually in the limelight and despite doing all the ‘dirty work’, the spikers and scorers get all the spotlights. I am so happy that my first Cup title comes alongside the MVP award.”
Libero of Panathinaikos and MVP of the Final Four
Panathinaikos’ international trio of Jennifer Cross (Canada), Margarita Stepanenko (Azerbaijan) and Maret Grothues (The Netherlands) each scored 14 points as Greece’s Evangelia Chantava emerged her side’s best scorer on 16 points.
Jennifer Cross was difficult to get past in the middle, contributing six blocks and produced a powerful attacking efficiency of 54% (7/13) - second only to Panathinaikos’ other middle blocker Eirini Chatziefstratiadou who attacked for 58% (7/12).
Eirini Chatziefstratiadou“I cannot even describe the emotion. Since the very start of the season we had set winning the Cup as one of our goals. Panathinaikos is here to stay and I would like to thank our fans who follow us wherever we may travel.”
Middle blocker of Panathinaikos
AO THIRAS outside hitter Symone Abbott of USA was top scorer of the final on 20 points but that was hardly enough for the Santorini club to claim their first ever title, after losing in the final for the third time running.
Earlier in the competition, Panathinaikos had knocked out Ilysiakos ATHENS 3-0 (25-9, 25-20, 25-21) in the semi-final of the Final Four, held in the capital of Crete.
AO THIRAS Santorini had previously spectacularly come back from 19-24 down in the first set to defeat Thetis of the Voula suburb of Athens 3-1 (28-26, 25-19, 27-25, 25-20) in the other semi-final.
The Men’s Cup Final Four, featuring defending Cup holders PAOK THESSALONIKI, Foinikas SYROS, Olympiacos PIRAEUS and Pegasus of the Thessaloniki suburb of Polichni will be taking place this coming April 2-3, 2022.