CEV, 4 March 2013
Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNA edged on Saturday the local heroines of Fenerbahce SK ISTANBUL at Burhan Felek Volleyball Hall (3:2; 25-18, 19-25, 25-15, 22-25, and 15-11) to follow up on their home win from this past Wednesday and claim the 2013 CEV Volleyball Cup – Women. Though 6,000 fans were in attendance and did continuously cheer on the home side, Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNA could eventually cruise to their first European trophy.
Though they were extremely motivated to bounce back after their defeat in Poland, the players in yellow and black jerseys could not find their best game and were trailing by the second technical time-out of the first set. On the other hand, MUSZYNA could exploit the mistakes made in defense by Paula Pequeno and Merve Dalbeler Seniye to move up 16:8 and Eleonora Dziekiewicz cashed the final 25-18 for the provisional 1:0.
The guests from Poland showed incredible skills in defense in the early phases of the second set but Fenerbahce eventually broke away in the score after the second technical time-out, chiefly via their middle-blockers Ipek Soroglu and Berenika Okuniewska. Korean superstar Kim Yeon-Koung displayed all of her class to anchor Fenerbahce to the provisional 1:1 (25-19).
MUSZYNA responded by storming out to a terrific 8:0 lead in the third set as Sanja Popovic could crash Fenerbahce backline with superb serving. Though Fenerbahce responded with four points in a row contributed by Elif Onur Basaran, MUSZYNA was not to stop; with Popovic and Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza showing great consistency and quality in offense, Bank BPS Fakro cruised to a terrific 25-15 that somehow shocked the many fans of Fenerbahce.
Still the home heroines could fight their way back with Kim paving the way for a 10:5 lead in set 4; Bank BPS Fakro did not lose composure clawing back on good serves by Valentina Serena before Kim took her side by the hand to call for the tie-break.
Dziekiewicz had got injured in the fourth set but MUSZYNA showed incredible determination and great nerves in the deciding set, quickly moving the score up to 10:3. By this time, Fenerbahce did need a real miracle to compensate for that bad start and keep alive their hope to go for the golden set; head coach Kamil Soz decided to change setter and opposite, with Nilay Özdemir and Meryem Calik replacing Lindsey Berg and Seda Tokatlioglu, and this move did help reduce the gap but was not enough to contribute a happy end for the winners of last year’s CEV Volleyball Champions League. Bank BPS Fakro MUSZYNA did not lose control of the game and finished it off at 15-11 for their first, historic European Cup win.
© Polish Volleyball Federation, 2017
