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| ALL FOCUSED: Action from the FIVB Club World Championship match between PGE Skra Belchatow and Al Arabi Doha here at the Women’s Sport Club Hall yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma |
PGE Skra Belchatow qualified as the top team in Pool ‘B’ of the Men’s FIVB Club World Championship by overcoming Al Arabi Doha in four sets 25-17, 25-17, 16-25, 25-17 at the Women’s Sports Club Hall yesterday.
Aleksandar Atanasijevic was the top scorer of PGE Skra Belchatow with 19 points followed by Mariusz Wlazly with 14, including three blocks. Michal Winiarski and Daniel Plinski added 11 and 10 respectively with the former finishing with a match-high four blocks.
Christian Pampel led the defeated forces with 17 tallies while Ahmed Al Bakhet and Mohamed Ibrahim added 11 and 10 respectively.
PGE Skra Belchatow outblocked Al Arabi 13-3 while the home team was slightly better in the aces category 7-5.
Daniel Plinski and Karol Klos led PGE Skra Belchatow to an 8-6 lead over Al Arabi. The Polish club led 16-13 at the second TTO. Pampel and Ribeiro Renan led a comeback from the local side to close within two points at 18-16. Then Wlazly and Atanasijevic took care for the PGE Skra side that claimed the set 25-17.
Atanasijevic started the second set with a cannon-shot followed by an ace from Klos. Ribeiro scored two in a row to narrow the distance to 5-4 and Plinski’s attack was wide for a 5-5 tie. Klos led a PGE reaction with his block and they led 8-6. The strong serves of the Polish club led to a compact blocking and a 16-13 advantage at the second TTO. Atanasijevic continued to hammer the opposition with his terrific kills and PGE Skra took the set by a comfortable 25-17 margin.
By winning the first two sets, PGE Skra secured a semifinal spot and that seemed to factor in their intensity during the third set. Pampel and Al Bakhet led Al Arabi to 8-5 and 16-10 advantages. Then it was the combination of Pampel’s serves with the attack from Ibrahim that gave the home side the third set. Ibrahim blocked Atanasijevic to close the action at 25-16.
Consecutive blocks by Plinski and Wlazly sent PGE Skra to a 5-1 lead. Wlazly served an ace and Plinski smashed his spike down the middle for an 8-3 advantage. A series of attacking errors from PGE allow Al Arabi to come back within two points at 13-11. A couple of big spikes by Winiarski lead to a 16-13 advantage. Plinski provides extra comfort at 19-15 followed by a powerful spike of Atanasijevic off the block. Plinski then In another match, Zenit Kazan of Russia secured one of the two semifinal spots of Pool B demolishing Zamalek of Egypt in straight sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-14).
The winning side held huge margins in the categories of blocks (12-2) and service aces (8-2). They made 14 errors to 21 by the losers and every player in Zenit Kazan’s roster saw action in the match.
Evgeny Sivozhelez and Matthew Anderson each collected three blocks and two aces with 10 and 9 points respectively for Zenit Kazan while Maxim Mikhaylov contributed 10 points with one block and two service winners. Reda Haikald and Mohamed Badawy each finished with 9 points for Zamalek.
Matthew Anderson’s blocking and Evgeny Sivolzhelez’s attacks helped Zenit Kazan to build advantages of 8-3 and 16-8 at the technical stops of the first set. The Zamalek side committed a total of 10 unforced errors as the Russian club took the set 25-13. Sivozhelez finished with five points while Anderson totaled three, including two blocks.
Anderson continued to be the cornerstone of Zenit Kazan in the second set when he added one more block and two aces for the 8-6 and 16-9 differences at the two mandatory pauses. Reda Haikal and Mohamed Badawy were main offensive weapons for Zamalek. Coach Alenko of Zenit was using part of his reserve players in the late part of the set with the same positive results. Alexev Cherimisin and Anderson increased the gap to 22-14. Zenit Kazan won 25-19 despite some late reaction from the Egyptian club.
The third set was not very different as Zenit Kazan led 8-4 at the first technical time-out relying on their serves and high defensive wall. The margin widened to 16-10 at the second stop. The set concluded 25-14 with Mikhaylov and Sivozhelez as the big guns for the winning side.
In the women’s action, Fenerbahce SK Istanbul subdued Kenya Prisons in straight sets (25-14, 25-17, 25-11) to win Pool B of the Women’s FIVB Club World Championship with a 2-0 win-loss record yesterday.
Fenerbahce received the benefit of 29 points from the opponents’ errors while making only 10 for the entire match. The winners held a 7-4 advantage in blocks and 5-2 in aces.
Seda Tokatlioglu led the Turkish club with 13 points, including five blocks, followed by Mari Steinbrecher who notched 12 with three aces. Paula Pequeno charted eight.
Lydia Mayo was the only player of Kenya with double digits in the scoring charts with 11 points while Everlyne Makuto finished with seven.