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This weekend was not one of the best ones for some of the #CLVolleyM squads: While all the powerhouses were aiming for comfortable but essential victories, Perugia in Italy, Zawiercie in Poland and Fenerbahce in Türkiye completed their domestic rounds with defeats, which also had significant impacts on the overall standings.
One of the #CLVolleyM contenders from Italy and the titleholder of the national league, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia faced Cucine Lube Civitanova in the 17th leg of the Italian SuperLega. In fact, Perugia started to match quite powerfully and took the 1-0 lead in sets. On the other hand, starting from the second set, but especially in the third and fourth ones, there was a superior game from the Civitanova side, resulting in a 1-3 loss for Perugia (1-3: 25-23, 27-29, 22-25, 16-25).
2000-born Italian promising outside hitter was selected as the MVP of the game, thanks to his 20-point performance, including three blocks and two aces. Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija (18 points) and Canadian international Eric Loeppky (14 points) also led their team to this huge victory. Cuban opposite Jaime Jesus Herrera’s 19 points were not enough on the losing side.
Perugia, therefore, suffered their second consecutive defeat in the league, but they are still on top of the standings with 42 points. On the other hand, their closest followers, Trentino and Civitanova have one match missing and now the point gap has decreased to two and six points, respectively. Therefore, the ranking of the leader and top three might change in Italy in the following weeks.
Polish #CLVolleyM club Aluron CMC Warta-Zawiercie met Norwid Czestochowa in the 21st leg of the Italian SuperLega. Both teams put great effort into the court, and there was a fierce battle, especially in the first two sets. The score was tied to 2-2 after four sets, and Zawiercie side could not resist to the strength of their opponent in the decisive tie-break, resulted in a 2-3 loss (2-3: 28-30, 25-23, 25-22, 20-25, 12-15) for them.
Iranian outside hitter Milad Ebadipour was honored with the MVP title with his 20 points of contribution, including two aces and two blocks. American outside hitter Aaron Russell tallied 20 points in Zawiercie. Despite receiving their fifth loss in total, the Zawiercie side preserved their vice-leader position with 49 points, but now the threat from Projekt Warszawa has become bigger.
Turkish #CLVolleyM team Fenerbahce Medicana Istanbul visited the country's leading squad, Ziraat Bankasi Ankara in the 17th week of the Turkish Efeler League. Starting from the first ball to the last, there was a huge Ziraat dominance in the court, which led them to a straight-set win (3-0: 25-22, 25-22, 25-14). Fenerbahce therefore took their sixth failure in total and completed this round as sixth place.
This weekend did not go well as expected for some of the #CLVolleyM teams in the most elite domestic leagues of the continent. Both Perugia, Zawiercie and Fenerbahce did not get what they wished for this time and completed the weekend with failures against their strong rivals. Now, these teams will see this round as an opportunity to see areas needed for improvement, and start to focus on their new challenges as soon as possible.