Copra Elior Piacenza won the first final battle of the 2013 CEV Challenge Cup . The Italian team held Ural Ufa down in straight sets at the away state and got closer to get the trophy. Two legends, Alessandro Fei and Hristo Zlatanov, were standing out scoring 35 points together while a leader of Ufa, Leandro Vissotto, was not able to break through the Copra’s block being stopped sevenfold.
Ural Ufa – Copra Elior Piacenza 0 – 3 (12-25, 22-25, 30-32)
Ural: Falasca 2, Abramov 9, Ashchev 6, Vissotto 12, Spiridonov 5, Kazakov 1, Verbov (L) and Panteleymonenko 4, Samoylenko 3, Alekseev 1, Zhloba, Botin
Copra: De Cecco 3, Papi 9, Holt 8, Fei 19, Zlatanov 16, Simon 5, Marra (L) and Tencati 2, Vettori, Corvetta
Copra Piacenza went off to a good start in the first set with difficult serves of Maxwell Holt scoring already six points in a row: a Zlatanov’s block on Vissotto, ace, successful counter attack ended up by Zlatanov, mistake of Vissotto and technical error of Falasca (0-6). Then, a coach of Ural, Frigoni, made up his mind to make a double substitution. Vissotto was changed by Zhloba while Falasca by Maxim Panteleymonenko. All these attempts was not succeed and Copra led 8-1 during the first technical time-out. Ural shaken off and rebuild the result a bit (6-12) but it was only a break in awkwardness of them. The Italians constantly moved the score up (17-15 and 10:20). Copra did show a very solid block and closed the set at 25-12 with Holt.
The early phases of the second set were much more balanced (2:2) but Samuele Papi contributed a first break for Piacenza acing for the 11:8 in favor of the guests from Italy. With Fei, Zlatanov and Holt on fire Copra Elior moved up by six points as the second technical time-out was called and though Vissotto and Abramov attempted a possible comeback for Ural (12:17), still De Cecco and Zlatanov did not let it go (13:20). Vissotto lacked quality and consistency in the final rush as he alternated good actions and easy mistakes, with Piacenza eventually going up 2:0 in sets (25-22).
Ural Ufa got finally back their best play in set 3 going up 3:1 and 8:6 as Copra Elior struggled, for the first time since the start of the game, to display its usual quality in reception. Cuban middle blocker Robertlandy Simon was no longer that effective and therefore Copra Elior opted for Luca Tencati to start clawing back (13:12, 18:17 for Ural). The guests from Italy did eventually draw level at 22 all thereby forcing Frigoni into a time-out. A mistake by Vissotto contributed a first match ball for Piacenza (23:24), Copra Elior missed out on another couple of opportunities to finish it off and Abramov leveled the count once more at 29 all for Ufa. A block by Tencati brought Copra Elior to the front once more but it was the almost 40-year old Samuele Papi who sealed the game scoring the last couple of points for the final 32-30 and a precious 3:0 away win.
The rematch will be played on the 24th of March ,2013, in Piacenza.
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