Saso Stalekar cheers on his teammates Photo: City Press GmbH
From BZ/dpa
The Berlin Volleys have had a successful start to the new year. In the Bundesliga home game against SVG Lüneburg, the German volleyball champions managed to win 3:1 (21:25, 25:21, 25:14, 25:23) on Wednesday.
In front of 3476 spectators in the Max-Schmeling-Halle, the Frenchman Timothee Carle was the outstanding player in the capital club in the outside attack. The 2.14 meter tall middle blocker Saso Stalekar also put in a strong showing for the championship leader.
In the first set, the volleys destroyed a 13:10 lead through a subsequent phase of weakness with 0:5 points in a row. With their weak acceptance and faulty attacking behavior, the hosts were unable to make up for this deficit in the period that followed.
The performance of the Berliners was not very constant in the second round either. An ace by Johannes Tille to make it 12:8 seemed to pave the way for a 1:1 set equalization early on. But at 13:13 it was the turn of the Lüneburgers again.
Ruben Schott digging Photo: City Press GmbH
Only a block from Stalekar to 21:18 gave the volleys the decisive advantage in the end. The 26-year-old Slovenian replaced Nehemiah Mote, who was rested for health reasons, in the middle block.
The set win seemed to give the game of volleys the previously missing looseness. But after the clearly dominated third period, the team briefly fell back into the old routine.
With a 11:6 lead in the fourth set, Lüneburg already sniffed the tie break, but the opponent showed fighting power and strong nerves in this phase. Carle eventually converted the match point.