AEK made the qualification case difficult

AEK has a “mountain” to climb. The Union lost 1-3 sets to Benfica at the Olympic Village in the first leg of the Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup ’32’ and will need to win by the same score or 3-0 in the second leg in Lisbon next Thursday to take the pair to the ‘gold’ set to claim qualification.

The Union finished the match with only one ace, that of Oliveira in the first set, while in the first two sets it was very low in attack and blocks.

AEK’s reaction came in the third set, where it generally had its best presence at the net, however there was no corresponding continuation.

Fluctuation:

1st set: 6-8, 12-16, 15-21, 17-25

2nd set: 5-8, 9-16, 10-21, 11-25

3rd set: 8-6, 16-12, 21-18, 25-21

4th set: 7-8, 13-16, 17-21, 19-25

*AEK’s points came from 1 ace, 37 attacks, 13 blocks and 21 opponent errors and Benfica’s came from 8 aces, 52 attacks, 13 blocks and 23 opponent errors.

The sets: 17-25, 11-25, 25-21, 19-25 in 96′

AEK (Efi Papaioannou): Trinkova 10 (3/8 ref., 7 blocks), Polinopoulou 8 (6/15 ref., 2 blocks), Hadava 5 (4/25 ref., 1 block, 36% sub. – 23% excellent), Sakranzigia 2 (2/6 ref., 47% sub.-20% excellent), Souza 15 (14/30 ref., 1 ace), Momi / Georgiadou (l, 57% sub. – 57% excellent), Toulgaridou (l) , Tsitsiplami, Rapti, Edwards 11 (8/32 ff., 3 blocks, 31% sub. – 08% excellent), Fliakou

BENFICA (Rui Miguel Moreira): Garces M. 8 (3/6 ref., 4 aces, 1 block), Cetin 3 (2/11 ref., 1 ace, 58% sub.-42% excellent), Clemente 17 (15/36 ref., 2 blocks), Dokic 18 (14/23 ff., 1 ace, 3 blocks), Malinverno 13 (8/14 ff., 5 blocks), Holt 12 (9/31 ff., 1 ace, 2 blocks, 60% fb .-10% excellent) / Rizzo (l, 69% sub.-38% excellent), Aleiso, Garces T. 1 (1/1 ff.), Delsin