Akaa-Volley’s magnificent week on the European volleyball courts ended in Warsaw on Wednesday.
Timo Uusitalo,
Matti Lehtisaari
As a continuation of the 0–3 loss suffered in their home game a week ago, Akaa-Volley lost the second semi-final of the Challenge Cup, the third highest level of volleyball, 1–3 (20-25, 25-18, 18-25, 17-25) to Projekt Varsova.
However, the Akaans managed to win one set and even at that stage – in the second set and also in the third set – the Finnish team was seriously fighting for the next place. In the six previous Euro matches, Warsaw had lost only one set of their jumps.
Wednesday’s match was played in Arena COS Torwar, which has seen life for more than 70 years. In the second set, there was a feeling of surprise, when Akaa-Volley even took the set crushingly 25–18. However, in the third set, the home team, full of world stars, returned the marching order (25–18) and sealed their place in the finals.
– Good fight and we were very involved in almost every round. Even in the third set, the situation was still 13–13. The opponent was able to turn things around with tough decisions at the end. In the last set, both teams changed a lot of their crews, explained the head coach Olli Kunnari.
Akaas ran the game Lasse Jänttias a chipper Mate Smidlas a general player duo Jere Heiskanen – Sebastian Pozo-Hernandezas middle players Panu Pitkänen – Petteri Tyynismaa and as a libero Louis Pineau.
In the final set, Kunnari replaced Pitkästi and Pineau without reading the entire team. Smidl collected again a handsome 17/+10 in three sets, Heiskanen 12/+9 and Pozo-Hernandez 10/+7. Home team from Warsaw chopper Bartholomew Boladz scored 19/+17.
In the finals of the Challenge Cup, Projekt Varsova will meet Monza of Italy, who defeated Galatasaray of Turkey in the second semi-final.
Previously, Akaa-Volley had eliminated the Slovenian Merkur Maribor, the Serbian Ribnica Kraljevo and the Czech Aero Odolena Voda.
– The whole thing in the European games was much more positive for us. In a way, the teams from which we had the opportunity to take the wins, we also took them from them, summed up Kunnari Akaa-Volley’s Euro match.
The semifinal spot was the fifth in Finnish volleyball history and the first for men in 43 years. Previously, on the men’s side, only Pieksämäki NMKY in 1979, 1980 and 1981 (European Cup) has been among the top four in Eurocups. LP Viest’s women’s team was in the semi-finals in Challenge Cup 2013.