The Berlin block of (from left) Marek Sotola, Anton Brehme and Cody Kessel against Vojin Cacic from Friedrichshafen Photo: picture alliance / nordphoto GmbH / Hafner
By Uli Hofmann
The Berlin Volleys suffered a defeat at the end of the Bundesliga intermediate round. In the prestige duel at archrival VfB Friedrichshafen, the German volleyball champion lost 3-1 (21:25, 36:34, 20:25, 22:25) in a heated atmosphere on Sunday.
In the Bodensee Airport Arena, the capital club missed several good opportunities to win the game.
The result was ultimately meaningless for the table situation of the BR Volleys. Even before the first rally, it was clear that the team would go first into the play-off quarter-finals against TSV Haching Munich. The first game of the best-of-three series will take place in Berlin on Saturday.
The Berliners had changed their regular formation in two positions: Angel Trinidad came on as a pass for Johannes Tille, while Cody Kessel was preferred to Timothee Carle in attack.
The team was already good in the beginning, but gave in at the end of the first round after a 21:20 lead and had to accept the loss of a set by 0:5 points in a row.
Ruben Schott struggles with a referee’s decision Photo: picture alliance / nordphoto GmbH / Hafner
The second section was highly dramatic. Only the seventh set ball decided for the Berliners, who in the meantime also had to fend off five set balls from VfB. The volleys seemed to be on the right track in round three at 8:3 for the first technical time-out, but then completely lost their step and fell behind at 13:20.
Even after the 1:2 set deficit, the guests remained defensive. But as before, they gradually lost a lead over stations 12:7, 13:10 and 19:17. With their 20th point, VfB scored their first lead in this round and then secured victory.