PGE SKRA Belchatow exacted a sweet revenge for its emotional setback and defeated European champion Zenit Kazan in five-set thriller to clinch the third place at the FIVB World Clubs Men’s Volleyball Championship.
At the Women’s Sports Hall in Aspire Zone on Friday, the Polish team, runner-up in the 2009 and 2010 in Doha, led after the first set but trailed 1- 2. Then it lifted its levels and led the last year’s finalist Zenit for the most of the remaining match before emerging a 25-18 18-25 15-25 26-24 15-11 in 117 minutes, enjoyed by a capacity crowd.
The winner pocketed $120,000, while the fourthplace finish fetched the Russian team $90,000.
In the women’s bronze medal match, former champion Fenerbahce SK Istanbul of Turkey defeated newcomer Lancheras de Catano of Puerto Rico by 25-16 25-17 25-17 to win $90,000 prize money. The loser earned $40,000.
In the European Champions League final earlier this year, Belchatow had lost the emotional final at home to the Russian team in front of more than 14,000 fans. It was leading 2-1 but Zenit returned into the match with a lot of force and clinched it in the tie-break set.
Later, for the new season, its three main players left it so Belchatow had come to this event with an aim to test its new team.
New and young talent Aleksandar Atanasijevic once again played a significant role in the Polish team’s victory, mustering a match-high 22 points, including 21 off his power-packed smashing.
Wytze Kooistra (12), captain Mariusz Wlazly (11) and Michal Winiarski (10) were other crucial contributors.
For Zenit, captain Maxim Mikhaylov scored 21, which included 18 from smashes.
Evgeny Sivozhelez collected 17 and he was followed by Alexandar Abrosimov (14), Matthew Anderson (12) and Nikolay Apalikov (11).
The match came alive after Zenit forged 2-1 ahead and the Belchatow team felt pressure to defend its narrow lead from midway fourth set.
Belchatow opened a small gap and led 12-8. But Zenit slowly came back and equalised at 12. Then briefly, Belchatow trailed and caught up with the rival at 15. The battle continued to gain some clear edge and the scores tied again at 22 to set up a thrilling end to the set.
Belchatow was put ahead as Matthew Anderson netted his service. But Maxim Mikhalov levelled the scores with a solid block.
Belchatow captain Wlazly smashed superbly to set up the set point but the Russian captain again rescued his team with a spike. Kooistra hammered a short ball home to gain another set point for Belchatow and Winiarski read the ball well and pulled off a nice block on Mikhaylov to win the set, forcing the tiebreaker.
Winiarski and Atanasijevic exhibited some clever volleyball and it enabled Belchatow to stay ahead after 5-5. Zenit tried to cut down the margin and had needed only one more point to tie the score at 11. But Atanasijevic rifled two spikes to increase the gap to 13-10.
Bakiewicz secured a successful block to bring up the first match point. But Winiarski’s service went out. Then Bakiewicz cracked a smash to spark a moving celebration among the teammates.
Coach Jacek Nawrocki also rushed to the court to join his celebrating players.
While Zenit captain Mikhaylov and coach Vladimir Alenko were too disappointed to say much about the match, Belchatow captain Wlazly and coach Nawrocki expressed delight at getting some measures of consolation for its Euro loss.
Wlazly said: “We’re very pleased with the victory today and keen to meet Zenit in the Champions League again in the new season.” Nawrocki commented: “Of course we rememeber the home European Champions League final defeat at home.
We took the revenge for that today. But I wish to add here again that we have a new team. Our three main players left (Miguel Angel Falasca, Bartosz Kurek and Marcin Mozdzonek). But we still played a fine volleyball and won the third place.” Fenerbahce wins bronze Fenerbahce SK Istanbul, the 2010 winners, added the women’s world clubs championship bronze medal to its cupboard when it turned in a compact game to beat Puerto Rico’s Lancheras de Catano in straight sets.
The Turkish team which had defeated Sollys Nestle from Brazil in the final two years ago, spent only one hour and 13 minutes to win the match by 25-16 25-17 25- 17.
Berenika Okuniewska and Eda Erdem topped the points chart for the winner, contributing 13 each. Erdem emerged the best spiker for Fenerbahce, drilling 11 winners.
Captain Seda Tokatlioglu earned nine of her 12 from the smashes to provide a 38-29 edge to her team.
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