Rabita Baku- Dinamo Kazan
Dinamo Kazan led 2-0 against Rabita Baku and 24-22 in the third set and when everyone thought the match was over, Katarzyna Skowronska had a slightly diffrent idea. The Polish spiker led her team to the eventual five-set victory 3-2 (22-25, 23-25, 28-26, 25-21, 15-9).
But nothing really indicated that Rabita would prevail. From the beginning Azer team had some huge troubles with reception. Aurea Cruz was the main aim of Russian players and didn’t manage to keep the ball convenient for the setter. Katarzyna Skowronska and Yoana Palacio were struggling on high block and middle-blockers weren’t in use at all. In Dinamo Ekaterina Gamova and Antonella Del Core were playing extraordinary in that first set and led the team to a 25-22 win. Second set looked really similar until Nootsara and Dora Horvath showed on court. The Thai setter made the play faster and more precise and Horvath received quite good. It wasn’t enough, however. Russian team stayed strong with powerful spikes and blocks and won 25-23.
Third set looked like the second until Rabita was 2 match points down. Then it all started to change with Skowronska scoring on both occasions and serving well. Rabita closed out the set with Palacio’s powerful spike and it all started from scratch.
Despite having Gamova, who finished the match with 47% of successful attacks and scored 31 points, the Russian team seemed to be totally confused until the very end, wasn’t able to concentrate again and lost the match in five sets.
Katarzyna Skowronska was the best scorer for Rabita with 31 points (42% efficency- 28 of 67 in attack).
Agel Prostejov- Chemik Police
After a strong start against Rabita,the Polish champions continue to wow. In their second match they won 3-0 against Agel Prostejov.
The first twe sets were very similar, as Chemik had troubles with reception but still managed to succeed in attack. Malgorzata Glinka-Mogentale and Anna Werblinska had a lot to do in reception and attack but were very solid throughout the whole match. Agel was able to fight until 20-20 and then it was notable that the the Polish team was more experienced. A perfect substitution from Izabela Kowalinska allowed them to prevail in the second part.
In the third one only Liannes Simon in Czech team scored consistently and the rest of the team seemed to be a bit frustrated. Chemik played much more better and won to 17.
Liannes Simon was the best scorer with 16 points (27% efficency in attack) and Małgorzata Glinka-Mogentale scored 15 points (54%), the highest for her team.
