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Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA make an important step in the race for a Quarterfinal phase of the competition. The tournament hosts face their colleagues from the Italian League, Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA, who secured their Quarterfinal spot on a Tuesday night. Fully aware of the importance this match has for their Champions League journey, Perugia transferred that pressure into their performance, outscoring Civitanova in all elements of the game. The victory keep Perugia in the second place with 12 points, but the Pool B table composition might yet change if Perugia will manage to win against their next opponent VB Tours on the last day of the competition.

The odds were on the side of Civitanova team as they began the match leading 7-10. Although Perugia managed to tie the score every time, Civitanova seem to be keeping 2 points ahead throughout the match. It was Thijs Ter Horst who’s performance at the service line allowed Perugia to go from 17-19 to 23-19 ahead. His great service run, including two aces was enough for his club to maintain the point difference and win the first set 25-21. It was no surprise that the Dutch outside spiker was the top scorer of this opening act, with 7 points contributed for Perugia.
The confidence gained by Perugia in the first set was carried into the second one, as they dominated it from the first moments going ahead as early as 8-3. Wilfredo Leon was the engine of his team’s performance, as he scored 7 in this set alone, becoming the top scorer of the match thus far with 12 points overall. Civitanova struggled to find a response to Perugia’s game and the hosting team secured the set at 25-18.
The third set was the most competitive yet, as both teams played point by point from the very beginning. Perugia managed to go 11-8 ahead, forcing Ferdinando de Giorgi to call a time out for Civitanova. While it seemed to work for his team, Thijs Ter Horst stepped on the service line yet again at 13-11, who’s powerful service that included another ace, made it 15-11 for Perugia. The club from Perugia maintained the point-gap, with Wilfredo Leon contributing a few more winning spikes. The end of the set saw Perugia making a few shaky errors in service and side-out, but the team secured a straight-set win at 25-21, gaining three valuable points.

• Wilfredo Leon was named MVP of the match, scoring 17 points for Perugia, including 13 winning spikes, 3 blocks and 1 ace

• Perugia outscored Civitanova in all elements, including 6 ace serves  - of which 4 were contributed by Thijs Ter Horst - and 7 blocks, whilst Civitanova closed with 2 aces and 2 blocks

• Perugia to came from 17-19 behind to 23-19 and eventually winning the opening act of the match thanks to Oleh Plotnytskyi’s and Thijs Ter Horst’s performances in this part of the set

• Osmany Juantorena was the best scorer on Civitanova’s side, winning 10 points for his team. He was the only player in his squad to have scored two-digit amount of points. 

Dragan Travica, setter of Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA: “It was a delicate match and this is an important victory against a great opponent. Our play has been great. Tomorrow we will play against VB Tours to hopefully enter the Quarterfinal phase“.

Osmany Juantorena, outside spiker of Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA: “It was a very bad match for us, as despite having already qualified for the Quarterfinal, by winning two sets tonight we would have definitely secured the first place in the Pool. We have many regrets from the first set, where we were leading till the score was 19-16 and then got too nervous when PERUGIA came back. They performed at a very high level in reception and attack, while we definitely lost the way to perform our usual volleyball"

Jiri Kovar, outside spiker of Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA: "It was important for us to qualify ourselves to the Quarterfinals and we reached the goal. Besides this we obviously wanted to play a better game today. I congratulate Perugia, who played a great match today. Now we go back to work and focus on the second part of the season".