The Balkan Volleyball Association

Romania’s 2004 Tomis CONSTANTA scored tonight a great and rather unexpected home win

against the Russian star-studded team of Dinamo KRASNODAR in the first leg scheduled for

the Challenge Round of the 2012 CEV Volleyball Cup, with the match ending in a 3:2 for the

local side (25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 22-25, 15-13).

After having played some more world-class teams – such as Vakifbank TTelekom ISTANBUL,

Azerrail BAKU plus Volley BERGAMO – in the prelims of the 2012 CEV Volleyball Champions

League, 2004 Tomis CONSTANTA this time tested out the likes of a strong Russian side.

Even though they had arrived to the Black Sea only today after having problems with their

visas, the guests from Russia did not show any fatigue and were accompanied by some

good weather on their way to the venue after last week Constanta was somehow isolated

from Bucharest and the mainland because of some heavy snowfall. On the other side, after

having gone through ups and downs in Europe’s top club competition, the home heroines

wanted to show their best quality to continue their international campaign for this season.

Dinamo started well and went up by the narrowest margin at both mandatory stops of the

opening set before Belarusian Katsiaryna Zakreuskaya made the difference in the money

time for the final 25-23 in favor of the home side. The guests set the pace in set 2 with

their main stars Tatyana Kosheleva, Foluke Akinradewo and Olga Fateeva displaying some

great Volleyball (3:8, 13:16) and although Tomis fought back bravely, the Russians could

seal it at 24-26.  

 
After a shaky start for Tomis (1:4), the score stayed extremely close all the way through

in the third set (10:10, 16:15, 21:21) before the Romanian ladies were eventually anchored

by their captain Claudia Gavrilescu and once again by Zakreuskaya on their way to a provisional

2:1 (25-21). Tomis showed off its best Volleyball in the early stages of set 4 (4:1, 8:4) but

Dinamo reacted via Fateeva and Akinradewo (11:12, 15:16) before Kosheleva called for the

tie-break (22-25).

The deciding set turned into a real thriller with the home side going up first at 8:7 and then

at 13:10 before the Russians stormed back again, all in vain as Gavrilescu and Cazacu fired up the

home party after finishing it at 15-13 for an incredible 3:2 win.

“I am really satisfied with the result and also with the performance of my players even though

they could have done even better. The schedule of our domestic competitions was recently

disrupted by the very difficult weather conditions registered everywhere here in Romania but

this somehow did help our preparations for this match. We shall be able to capitalize on this also

next week in Russia and go for a good result again” stressed home head coach Darko Zakoc.

“We really wanted to score a win in front of our fans and I think we deserved it” said team

captain Claudia Gavrilescu. “Everything just came together tonight: good shape, right focus and

so on. The experience we have gained through our European adventure will certainly have a

positive impact on the remainder of the domestic season as well as on our next international

campaigns”.