Despite being out in the Champions League: BR Volleys “can raise their heads”

Despite being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the conclusion of the BR Volleys was positive. “We played a great Champions League season. We can raise our heads and look ahead now,” said vice-captain Ruben Schott after the 2:3 (26:24, 21:25, 25:22, 17:25, 13:15) defeat at the world-class team Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia on Wednesday. After the 3-1 victory in the first meeting in Berlin, the Italians had already secured a place in the semi-finals with their 2-2 set equalization in the second leg.

“It’s a shame that it wasn’t enough for more,” regretted Schott. However, the 28-year-old outside attacker put forward the thesis: “If we had three or four more games at this high level in a year, we could certainly solve certain game situations better.” But the fact is that the BR Volleys are now in their third year in Episode did not progress beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In all three cases, they prevented Italian clubs from reaching the semi-finals. Before Peruguia, the Berliners failed twice at Itas Trentino.

In front of 2474 spectators in Perugia’s Pala Barton, the performance of the Bundesliga leaders also commanded respect from the opponents, who were peppered with world-class players. “Berlin has a really good team. They know how to play volleyball at a high level,” praised Perugia’s Ukrainian striker Oleh Plotnytsky after the hard-fought match, which lasted more than two hours. After their 2-1 lead, the guests could even briefly dream of reaching the golden set, which would ultimately have decided their progress.

However, he was “extremely proud” of his team, said Volleys coach Cedric Enard. His summary: “We were much better in block defense than in the first leg and therefore won the two sets with the necessary looseness”. From now on, the BR Volleys will focus on successfully defending the German championship title. On Sunday they have to play VfB Friedrichshafen in an intermediate round game that is ultimately meaningless for their situation in the table. After that, the play-off quarter-finals in best-of-three format will begin on March 25. Opponent is TSV Haching Munich. (dpa)