Dominant Olympiacos, broke the home of Panathinaikos and took the title lead!

Olympiakos with the soul of a champion, beat Mets and took the title lead! The “red and white” showed up ready to fight in the first final against Panathinaikos and with great protagonists Stern and Koumendakis, they prevailed 3-0 sets, “erasing” the advantage of the “clover” and took the upper hand for the championship!

Shocking the first two sets of the final with Olympiakos taking advantage of the “gifts” of Panathinaikos, who failed to take advantage of the “counter balls” losing important leads.

Her Monday (15/4) the second final at the indoor gym “Melina Merkouri” in Rentis, with the “red and white” having the opportunity to do the 2-0 in the series.

The match

With Olympiacos entering the match strongly and quickly reaching +4 (4-8), the Mets derby began. Panathinaikos reacted immediately with two aces by Kasambalis, but also difficult points by Hernandez and Rangel and found the way to the tie (9-9).

Kovar’s ace put Dimitris Andreopoulos’ team in front of the score with the two teams going point-to-point without any streak. However, Olympiacos found a way to take a significant lead, with the very good receptions, but also the wrong decisions of the hosts in the attack. Gustavo’s block on Kovar put the “red and white” in front again and they reached +2 (16-18) until Panathinaikos reduced to a point with Rangel’s block. Daniel Castellani’s players proved to be cool in the “green” counterattack and were lucky to take the first set 25-23 thanks to a block out by Djuric.

The start of the second set was similar with Panathinaikos taking the lead twice with Voulkidis and Hernandez for 2-1. However, Olympiacos reacted and reached +2 with an impressive 4-0 run which forced Dimitris Andreopoulos to call a timeout. This helped the “greens” who, with Hernandez and Kasambalis, brought the match to -1 (7-8), which however woke up Olympiakos. The “red and white” managed to take advantage of the inertia of Panathinaikos to take the counter balls and took the lead again with a significant difference of three points (12-15). Panathinaikos, however, reacted by hitting Hidalgo on serve and took the lead for the first time after 2-1 with Kasambalis as the protagonist and Hernandez’s attacks for 19-18.

The match turned into a real derby with Panathinaikos maintaining the lead and taking the set ball with a terrific point by Hernandez for 24-22. But Stern with an excellent hit in the back zone and Koumendakis with a winning block out brought the match back to the level leading the set to overtime.

The set went to Olympiakos despite Panathinaikos having plenty of chances to make it 1-1, but a stunning ace by Hidalgo and a commanding double-block nail by Koumendakis made it 30-32 for the 2-0 “red and white”.

Determined to make the break and take the lead in the finals, Olympiacos presented itself in the third set. The “red and whites” entered strongly and took a 2-0 lead with Koumendakis, with Panathinaikos responding by reducing to 2-1. However, Daniel Castellani’s team continued with their foot stuck on the “gas” after Stern and Hidalgo remained at +2 (6-8). The hosts persevered by tying with Kovar and an error by Djuric and took the lead on an error by Stern (11-10). But the “greens” lost their concentration, as a result of which Olympiacos reached +3 and then +6, receiving a performance of victory.

Hernandez and Kasampalis scored the last two points of Panathinaikos with the blocks of Djuric and the awesome points from Koumendakis and Gustavao ending the match for 17-25 and 3-0 for Olympiakos.

Sets (0-3): 23-25, 30-32, 17-25

*Panathinaikos’ points came from 6 aces, 40 attacks, 4 blocks and 20 opponent errors while Olympiakos’ points came from 6 aces, 42 attacks, 9 blocks and 25 opponent errors

PANATHINAIKOS (Dimitris Andreopoulos): Kasambalis 6 (3 aces, 3 blocks), Kovar 4 (3/8 ret., 1 ace, 36% sub. – 27% excellent), Rangel 3 (3/7 ret.), Hernandez 22 (22/34 ret. ), Voulkidis 8 (5/6 f., 2 aces, 1 block), Protopsaltis 6 (6/21 f., 25% sub. – 25% excellent) / Zisis (l., 47% sub. – 32% excellent ), Petreas, Frankos 1 (1/1 ff.)

OLYMPIAN (Daniel Castellani): Stern 20 (15/26 ff., 4 aces, 1 block), Gustavao 4 (2/5 ff., 2 blocks), Koumendakis 8 (7/13 ff., 1 block, 43% sub. – 33% excellent) , Travica 3 (3 blocks), Djuric 11 (9/15 ff., 2 blocks), Hidalgo 11 (9/16 ff., 2 aces, 24% sub. – 29% excellent) / Dziavras (min., 22% sub. – 22% excellent), Dalakouras

The film of the first final from the live of sport-fm.gr