After the 3: 2 (25:23, 24:26, 25:14, 21:25, 15:11) victory in the CEV Cup over Barkom-Kazhany Lwiw, the Hypo Tirol Alpenvolleys Haching are looking forward to the quarter-final opponent Zenit St. Petersburg.
Unterhaching / Innsbruck - As is often the case in the European Volleyball Cup: the big cheers did not come after the end of the competitive five-set game, but after the third section. Middle blocker Douglas da Silva answered the crucial question of the evening in front of 850 spectators in the Bayernwerk Sportarena by converting the first set ball to 25:14. With this point, the alpine volleyball had brought those two rounds that were necessary to reach the quarter-finals after the 3-0 victory in Lviv. However, the hosts met tough opposition from the Ukrainians at the beginning, who, despite their travel stress, appeared surprisingly fresh. Thanks to the storm storm Sabine, the guests had been on the road for almost 24 hours. After various flight changes, they were jetted from Warsaw to Vienna, from where they left for Munich by midnight. They finally arrived at 4.30 a.m. After the training, which was actually compulsory the previous evening, had already fallen flat, they only had one practice session a few hours before the game to get used to the hall. But they fought back vigorously: after the tight first set, which was won at 25:23, the alpine volleyball team even lost 24:26 in the second despite almost constant leadership. Niklas Kronthaler had expected nothing else: “We knew that the Ukrainians would play with a lot of risk when it comes to service. And they did it well, they really put a lot of pressure on the serve. We had difficulties assuming that we had stabilized well in the last few games, ”said the alpine volleyball striker.
Libero Florian Ringseis was also not surprised by the hotly contested initial phase: "We knew that they were good and would put pressure on them, but overall I thought we played it down with ease."
In fact, the cross-border commuters from Innsbruck and Unterhaching countered impressively in the third set, presenting a 10: 2 lead that basically eliminated all doubts about progress. “Compliments to the team. We found good solutions in difficult situations, ”said Kronthaler. "The first three sentences were at a high level." Therefore, he did not attribute any critical importance to the extraordinary circumstances: "The difficult journey could have been a disadvantage for Lviv. But maybe they have developed a now-more-than-now mentality. The way we played in the first three sets, we would have won if they had arrived normally. ”
Despite the purely statistical value of the last two sentences, in which the alpine volleyball also spared some regulars, Kronthaler was also pleased about the victory: "It is important for the mentality to win a game like this."
Now the Alpine volleyball looks expectantly at the next opponent Zenit St. Petersburg with "Hammer-Schorsch", the German volleyball superstar Georg Grozer, who is expected to introduce himself on Shrove Tuesday to the quarter-final first leg in Unterhaching: "That is the appeal of the European Cup. You play against the best teams in Europe, ”said Kronthaler.
