International men’s report: Olympian-laden Champions League battles
This is Blair Lambert’s VolleyballMag.com men’s professional volleyball report, featuring Americans around the world. Got a note about a player or a comment for Blair? Email him at blairlambert2@gmail.com
Not only was there another full set of fixtures in European cup competitions for a second consecutive week, but American fans were treated to a Champions League matchup featuring a trio of Olympians who have nine Champions League titles between them.
ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle vs. Ziraat Bankasi featured the two most successful American players in the history of the competition.
Matt Anderson of Ziraat Bankasi has four Champions League titles. He and Zenit Kazan won each edition of the tournament from 2015 to 2018. David Smith and ZAKSA have won the last three crowns. Erik Shoji was a part of ZAKSA for the two most recent titles.
ZAKSA traveled to Ankara, Türkiye, after dropping its third PlusLiga match of the year, a four-set defeat to Barkom Kazanay Lviv in the Turkish Efeler League.
Anderson turned in a clutch performance down the stretch as Ziraat beat ZAKSA 26-24, 25-22, 18-25, 19-25, 15-12 ,leading with 21 kills, a block and an ace. In the fifth set, he scored five of his team’s last seven points.
Smith had six kills and an ace for ZAKSA. His .400 hitting percentage was a bit lower than has come to be expected from the three-time Olympian, but injuries have plagued the setting corps from ZAKSA. The club had to sign Radoslaw Gil after Marcin Janusz and Przemysław Stępień were injured. Erik Shoji passed 45 percent of his 20 receptions positively and 10 percent perfectly.
USA teammates: Matt Anderson hits against David Smith, left/CEV photo
Ziraat is atop Pool A at 2-0 with five points. ZAKSA is 1-1 with four points. The point ZAKSA earned on the road by taking the match to five sets puts the Polish club ahead of 1-1 Knack Roeselare. This is a familiar situation for ZAKSA, which finished second in its pool the last two years before winning the title each time.
Asseco Resovia Rzeszów got into the win column with a three-set victory over ACH Volley Ljubljana of Slovenia. TJ DeFalco hit .526 on his way to 12 kills and five blocks. The sweep puts Resovia in second place of Pool B by virtue of sets ratio with a 1-1 record and three points.
Micah Ma’a and Halkbank Ankara had to pull out a 29-27 win in set four to take its home match against the Berlin Recycling Volleys to a fifth set before winning 15-10. Halkbank hit .280 and Ma’s had a kill, a block and an ace. Nimir Abdel-Aziz and Earvin N’Gapeth led Halkbank with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Cody Kessel was used as a substitute in all five sets for Berlin. Halkbank sits atop Pool C at 2-0 with five points. Berlin is second at 1-1.
Matt Knigge hit .667 and had four kills, three blocks and an ace for SVG Lüneburg in a four-set victory over his former team, CV Guagas of Spain. The other middle, Blake Leeson, had four kills and four blocks. Gage Worsley passed 63 percent of his receptions positively and 38 percent perfectly. Lüneburg is first place in Pool D with six points on two wins.
Lube Civitanova swept VK Lvi Praha Alex Nikolov had a forgettable outing. He started the match but was replaced in the first set after hitting -.600 on five attempts with no kills. Lube (2-0) is atop Pool E.
CEV Cup
Chaumont was eliminated after losing in five to the top team in France, Nantes Reze. Chaumont replaced most of its starters in the fifth set since the Nantes Reze had clinched advancement after winning the fourth set. Jose Worsleuy set Chaumont to a .382 hitting percentage in the four sets he played. Dan McDonnell had six kills and two blocks in four sets. Pat Gasman came on for McDonnell in the fifth and had two kills in as many attacks. Michael Marshman played the whole match, finishing with five kills, a block and an ace.
Karlovarsko earned its place in the next round after taking the first two sets from VaLePa. Tommy Carmody finished with a block and a kill as both teams replaced much of their lineups for the third set. Spencer Oliivier had five kills and hit .500 in the third set for Karlovarsko. Chase Direito had a kill and a block for VaLePa.
Cole Gillis led Lycurgus Gronigen with nine kills, three blocks and an ace, but his team was eliminated after being swept by SC Prometry Dnipro. Cal Fisher had a 10-kill, one-block performance for Lycrugus. Kyle McKauley had eight kills. Settre Cole Bogner had two aces and a kill.
Tim McIntosh and Hypo Tirol were eliminated by a Fenerbahce team that is undefeated in Türkiye/CEV photo
After pulling off a big upset against Fenerbahce in Innsbruck a week ago in the first leg, Hypo Tirol was eliminated by the club from Istanbul. Tim McIntosh passed 50 percent of his 40 receptions positively and 15 percent perfect.
Chênois Genève beat Fino Kaposvar in five to advance.
CEV Challenge Cup
Taylor Averill made his debut for Projeckt Warsaw in a sweep of Calcit Kamnik of Slovenia, coming off the bench in the second set to get two kills and two blocks. Warsaw plays Saint Nazaire in the next round.
Saint Nazairehit .427 and is in the next round after winning its first two sets against Deya Volley Burgas. Jordan Ewert led with eight kills in two sets. Kyle Ensing contributed four kills. Quinn Isaacson set Saint Nazaire to a .433 hitting percentage in the two sets he played.
Ensings’s 19 points and 16 from Jordan Ewert helped Saint Nazaire beat Deya Volley Burgas in four sets. Setter Quinn Isacson had a block.
Jaylen Jasper put away 10 kills but struggled with 10 errors for Spartak Subotica. His Serbian club was eliminated by Fonte Bastardo after losing the return leg in four sets. Jasper also had two blocks.
Poland
Indykpol AZS Olsztyn hit .500 and swept Enea Czarni Radom and setter Josh Tuaniga had an ace and a kill. Nicolas Szerszen, the 2016 NCAA player of the year, was back in the starting lineup after an injury and has 12 kills, hitting .440.
Resovia swept PGE GiEK Skra Bełchatów as DeFalco hit.526 with 13 kills and an ace.
ZAKSA, continuing to deal with injuries, swept Cuprum Lubin. Zapłacki, who has been playing with ZAKSA’s second team down in the Polish Third League since 2018, played the whole match and had a kill in his only attempt. Smith contributed four kills, hitting .500, and three blocks, and Shoji passed 50 percent positively and 50 percent perfect. Jake Hanes started at opposite for Lubin and hit .437 with 10 kills.
Russia
Micah Christenson had a kill as Zenit Kazan hit .491 and swept ASK Nizhny Novgorod.
In the Russian Cup Zenit hit .411 and swept Lokomotiv Novosibirsk as Christenson also had and a block. Kazan plays Dynamo Moscow in the final on December 24.
Italy
Jeff Jendryk hit .800 and had five blocks and an ace for Taranto in a five-set loss to Valsa Group Modena. Kyle Russell had eight kills, two blocks and an ace.
Gabi Garcia led Pallavolo Padova with 19 points in a 25-18, 18-25, 25-19, 25-18 victory against Catania on December 3. He scored two points from the service line, including on match point. He also hit .451 in a 17-kill performance. Davide Gardini chipped in 14 kills, three aces, and a block.
Serbia
Jaylen Jasper had seven kills, a block and an ace but Spartak Subotica was swept by Mladni Radick.
Japan
Aaron Russell and the JT Thunders Hiroshima won both its matches against the Nagoya Wolfdogs. Russell’s 20 kills and two aces led Hiroshima to a four-set win and the next day he had 24 kills, a block and an ace in a five-set victory.
China
Max Holt made his first appearance for Beijing, which was swept by Jiangsu, this season and had three kills and a block, but left in the second set with an injury after landing on a teammate while closing a block.
Türkiye
After the win in the Champions League, Ma’a only served as Halkbank Ankara swept Brand Group Alanya Belediyespor.
Ziraat played its second five-set match of the week, and Anderson had 26 kills and six aces in a 19-25, 25-16, 25-12, 23-25, 15-13 victory.
France
Saint Nazaire hit .413 and swept Toulouse as Ewert hit .500 on his way to nine kills, four blocks and an ace. Ensing had 10 kills, a block an ace.
Paris lost its sixth match of the season after being swept by Saint-Jean d’Illac. Colton Cowell played a bigger role than he had previously for Paris, coming off the bench in the first set and finished with eight kills, hitting .429, and an ace. Daniel Wetter scored from four kills and a blockt.
Chaumont lost its second match of the week and its second match of the Marmara SpikeLigue when it fell in five to Tourcoing. McDonnell scored on seven kills, hitting just under .500. Gasman started and had four kills with a block before being replaced by Marshman, who did not score, in the fourth set. Worsley set Chaumont to a .328 hitting percentage. Both Chaumont and Tourcoing are 7-2, but Chaumont is in second place with 22 points compared to Toucoing’s 20.
Narbonne fell to 0-9 with just one point after being swept by Tours on December 2. Kyle Dagostino passed 81 percent positively and 38 percent perfectly with no errors in reception.
JT Hatch plays the ball for Helios Grizzlys Giesen/CEV photo
Germany
Berlin’s Kessel had six kills, hit .857 and had three blocks in a 25-19, 25-16, 25-22 win over ASV Dachau.
JT Hatch came off the bench in the third set and had two kills and an ace in a sweep over TSV Haching Munich. Winless Munich’s Austin Matautia finished with three kills and a block but hit .000.
Joel Shneidmiller came off the bench in the fourth set for WWK volleys Herrsching and had akill on two attempts in a four-set loss to VfB Friedrichshafen.
Matt Slivinsky had eight kills and three aces as SVG Lüneburg swept FT 1844 Freiburg. Knigge earned three aces, two kills and a block, but hit .000. Worsley passed 82 percent positively and 45 percent perfectly. Freiburg’s Ian Parish had four kills and a block.
Argentina
Brandon Rattray led UPCN’s sweep of Club Atletico River Plate with 16 kills, hitting .481, and three blocks. He leads the league at 5.44 points per set.
Austria
Hypo Tirol Volley (8-0) swept VCA Amstetten NÖ as McIntosh passed 78 percent positively and 56 percent perfectly.
Finland
Savo Volley had a four-set win over Raision Loimu as Michael Michelau had seven kills and three blocks. Reison Loimu’ s Felix Egharevba had five kills and two blocks.
Greg Petty turned in a 24-point performance for Hurrikaani-Loimaa in a four-set victory against Kokkolan Tiikerit. Petty had five aces, 18 kills and a block. Troy Gooch passed 50 percent positively and 14 percent perfect.
Colin Lovejoy had 10 kills, hitting .714, a block and an ace for Kyky-Betset in a five-set win over Raision Loimu on December 2. Egharevba had nine kills, two aces, and two blocks.
Direito had five kills and five blocks in VaLePa’s loss to Akaa-Volley.
Savo Volley’s Michelau had 12 kills and an ace in the four-set victory over TUTO Volley.
Greece
Ryan Coenen had seven kills and setter Matt West had a kill and a block but A.O. Kalamata ‘80 was swept by Panathinaikos.
Czech Republic
Grant Marocchi of Brno hit .500 and had nine kills and two blocks in a five-set loss to Dukla Liberec. Patrick Ross had 18 kills.
Jordan Kerkvliet started the third set in the middle for Odolena Voda but didn’t score in a sweep by České Budějovice.
Mark Olsen had two blocks and two kills for VK Ostrava in a four-set loss to Příbram.
Tommy Carmody finished a sweep of Zlín with two kills, two blocks and an ace. Spencer Olivier came off the bench in the third set for Karlovarsko and had two kills on two swings.
Switzerland
James Norris put up five blocks and four kills for Chênois Genève in a 36-38, 26-24, 25-14, 25-21 win over Volley Amriswil. Dennis Del Valle passed 69 percent perfectly and 56 percent perfectly.
Netherlands
Lycurgus fell in four sets to Active Living Orion as Cole Gillis led with 19 kills. Cal FIsher had nine kills and a block. Kyle McCauley finished with three kills and an ace. Setter Cole Bogner had two aces.
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