Year in Review: Zaksa and Conegliano at the top of Europe
Editorial
After not being able to go all the way to the end in the 2019-2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic, continental competition at the club level returned with full power in 2020-2021, pitting the top teams of European volleyball against each other for nine months.
Italian clubs were in control, winning three of the six titles in play at the CEV Champions League Volley, the CEV Volleyball Cup and the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup, but teams from Poland, Russia and Turkey also got to celebrate remarkable triumphs in the continent.
CEV Champions League
The highlight of the club season in Europe was undoubtedly the Super Finals of the Champions League, which reunited men and women at the AGSM Forum, in Verona, Italy, on May 1. Two new champions were crowned in Poland’s Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle and Italy’s A. Carraro Imoco Conegliano.
The tournament was a massive success on and off the court, generating an unprecedented 1.8 billion potential media contacts and an advertising value of € 15 million. A total of 13,495 social media posts mentioning the event and as many as 345.5 million potential contact points for the #SuperFinalsVerona were registered, almost four times the amounts registered two years earlier in Berlin.
Led by the legendary coach Nikola Grbic, Zaksa became the first Polish team to win the continent’s most coveted trophy since the Champions League format was launched at the turn of the century with a 3-1 victory over Italian powerhouse Trentino Itas. The trio of outside hitters Aleksander Sliwka (18) and Kamil Semeniuk (15) and opposite Lukasz Kaczmarek (15) combined for 48 points to take their team to the unprecedented victory.
The three also made it to the tournament's All-Star Team, which was voted by the fans and awarded four other Zaksa players - setter Benjamin Toniutti, libero Pawel Zatorski and middle blockers Jakub Kochanowski and David Smith.
The women’s final saw Conegliano, which entered the tournament as the reigning world champions, take down four-time winners VakifBank Istanbul and celebrate their first continental title. The match, which needed all five sets and lasted nearly two and a half hours, presented an exciting duel between two of the best opposites in the world, with Italian Paola Egonu outscoring Swedish Isabelle Haak by 41-33 to lead the Italian side to victory.
The Italian star was one of five Conegliano players in the tournament's All-Star Team, joining setter Joanna Wolosz, libero Monica de Gennaro, outside hitter Kimberly Hill and middle blocker Robin de Kruijf. VakifBank's Gabi Guimaraes and Fenerbahçe Opet Istanbul's Eda Erdem completed the team.
CEV Cup
The CEV Cup saw a repeat winner in the men’s side, with Russia’s Dinamo Moscow claiming the title for a third time, and a new one among the women, with Saugella Monza keeping the trophy in Italy for a second-straight season.
Russian national team setter Pavel Pankov was at the forefront of Dynamo’s third victory in the tournament as he took home the MVP award following his team’s triumphs in both legs (3-2 at home and 3-1 on the road) of the all-Russian final against Saint Petersburg.
Pavel Pankov"It's always cool to play here. We won the Russian Cup in Saint Petersburg in December, and now we deserved another trophy. However, now we won't be celebrating. We will start the preparations for the Final Six of the Russian Championship."
CEV Cup Most Valuable Player
A setter also took the protagonist role in Monza’s victory among the women as Italian national team player Alessia Orro led the team to triumph. The 23-year-old, Rio 2016 Olympian led her side to a pair of dominant performances that result in back-to-back straight-set victories against Turkey’s Galatasaray HDI Istanbul in the final series.
CEV Challenge Cup
On the CEV Challenge Cup, the Italian victory happened on the men’s side, with Allianz Powervolley Milano stepping at the top of the podium. The female champions were Sistem9 Yesilyurt Istanbul, which triumphed in the tournament for the first time.
Sistem9 Yesilyurt Istanbul also relied on their opposite, rising star Alexia Ioana Carutasu, to win the final series against Romania’s C.S.M. Volei Alba BLAJ. The 18-year-old Romanian led all scorers in the tournament with 128 points, including 19 in the final match, to take home the MVP award.
Club World Championships
European clubs also dominated the year-ending Club World Championships, securing five of the six medals in play and matching the continent's best-ever result.
It was all about Europe among the women with VakifBank getting revenge over Conegliano to win their fourth title and fellow Turkish Fenerbache Opet Istambul completing the podium in Ankara.
On the men's side, Italy was the most successful continent, with Cucine Lube Civitanova finishing second and Trentino third, behind the hosts, Brazil's Sada Cruzeiro.