Volleyball
MATE-ASHER AKKO, HAIFA cement supremacy with national league titles
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Article Mon, Apr 22 2019
Tel Aviv, Israel, April 22, 2019. The teams from the northern section of Israel have cemented their reign in the national volleyball leagues. Hapoel MATE-ASHER AKKO, a team that represents a regional council consisting of a number of kibbutz (a collective community) and villages, along with the port city of Akko, won the men’s championship for the 15th time in their history. As a result, they have become the most decorated team in Israeli Volleyball history, surpassing the legendary team of Ha’maapil, another club originated from a kibbutz.
In the finals, Hapoel MATE-ASHER AKKO overcame much worthy contenders - Hapoel KFAR SABA, who earlier this season had reached the quarterfinals of the CEV Challenge Cup. Reinforced by Bartlomiej Kluth, the team’s only non-Israeli player, KFAR SABA was the only team in Israel to beat MATE-ASHER AKKO, and it did so twice this season, including once in the championship series, which ended with a 3-1 victory for the ‘Reds’ in the fourth round. Israel’s national team middle-blocker Viacheslav Batchkala had 17 points (including seven blocks) in MATE-ASHER AKKO’s crowning game. Noam Katz, the team’s coach, has helped his side win six championships in the last seven seasons; moreover, he has claimed 13 titles in 12 seasons at the helm of the club.
In the women’s first division, Maccabi HAIFA won a second straight championship. The team from the biggest city in northern Israel lost the national cup to Hapoel KFAR SABA (who had reached the quarterfinals of the Challenge Cup just as their men’s team), but managed to get a hold of their season and won the title for the third time in the last four years. Maccabi’s 37-year-old superstar Logan Tom, the youngest woman ever to make the cut for the USA Olympic team, played for HAIFA last year and won the Israeli championship, and re-joined the club in the middle of the season in an eventually successful effort to retain the title. She scored 19 points in the deciding game, to go with Belarusian Iuliia Andrushka’s 21.
In the finals, Hapoel MATE-ASHER AKKO overcame much worthy contenders - Hapoel KFAR SABA, who earlier this season had reached the quarterfinals of the CEV Challenge Cup. Reinforced by Bartlomiej Kluth, the team’s only non-Israeli player, KFAR SABA was the only team in Israel to beat MATE-ASHER AKKO, and it did so twice this season, including once in the championship series, which ended with a 3-1 victory for the ‘Reds’ in the fourth round. Israel’s national team middle-blocker Viacheslav Batchkala had 17 points (including seven blocks) in MATE-ASHER AKKO’s crowning game. Noam Katz, the team’s coach, has helped his side win six championships in the last seven seasons; moreover, he has claimed 13 titles in 12 seasons at the helm of the club.
In the women’s first division, Maccabi HAIFA won a second straight championship. The team from the biggest city in northern Israel lost the national cup to Hapoel KFAR SABA (who had reached the quarterfinals of the Challenge Cup just as their men’s team), but managed to get a hold of their season and won the title for the third time in the last four years. Maccabi’s 37-year-old superstar Logan Tom, the youngest woman ever to make the cut for the USA Olympic team, played for HAIFA last year and won the Israeli championship, and re-joined the club in the middle of the season in an eventually successful effort to retain the title. She scored 19 points in the deciding game, to go with Belarusian Iuliia Andrushka’s 21.