Kuusamo, who won the previous two women’s Finnish championships, was also strong on the away court in the 2nd final of the Women’s Volleyball Championship League.
Kuusamo had beaten LP Kangasala 3–0 in the opening final and also secured a convincing 3–1 victory in the second final on Wednesday. The sets were scored for Kuusamo 25–22, 25–23, 18–25, 25–18).
Third season playing in Kuusamo’s Pallo-Karhui Carlyle Nussbaum became one of his team’s decision-makers on Wednesday. After two sets, Nusbaum was the most efficient of his team with ten points, but he froze in the third set to the bench due to a weak offensive game (1/8). In the fourth set, he returned to his familiar level and in the end was the most efficient of his team with 16 points.
In addition to Nusbaum, who has already celebrated the championship twice in Kuusamo, PaKa’s star players included a midfielder playing his first season in Europe Amiya Jones. Jones, who studied sociology at the University of Iowa, collected 14 points, and the +13 power balance was clearly the team’s best.
Jones ended the match with an ace, it was his fourth of the match. Kuusamo won the ace statistics 12–5, half of its aces came in the final set. In addition, he scored nine points out of 14 passes, and made only one error.
– The attack power is pretty normal for me, and the aces weren’t a surprise either, Jones commented to STT.
Jones served 40 aces in the regular season and was the best on his team in that statistic.
Neea-Maria River was the most efficient of LP Kangasala with 16 points. Coach Arttu Keränen saw the match as a solution to the failure of certain tactical things in the game.
The win was Kuusamo’s ninth in a row against LP Kangasala. Last year Kuusamo knocked LP Kangasala out of the finals in the semifinals with three straight wins. LP Kangasala last won in Kuusamo on April 20, 2022.
Kuusamo leads the final matches with a 2–0 win. The teams will meet again on Thursday in LP Kangasala’s home hall. The potentially decisive fourth final match of the championship will be played in Kuusamo on Sunday.
In the women’s second bronze medal match, Puijo Wolley defeated LP-Vampula 3–1 (14–25, 25–20, 25–16, 25–15) and won the dullest medals 2–0.