Σάββατο 19 Ιουνίου 2010

GB guys turn up the heat with home victory against Romania

Great Britain turned up the heat at the top of Pool A of the 2010 CEV European League with a come-from-behind win over Romania at the K2 Crawley (21-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-16). If Jason Haldane caught the eye with a hugely influential match, GB did not have a failure and they can take control of the group if they can repeat the victory on Sunday.
In a tight start to the match, Romania led 8:6 at the first technical time-out after Mark Plotyczer was too long with his service. Some strong serving from Haldane kept GB in tough but a couple of astute plays on the second ball attack from setter Cristian Bartha gave Romania two invaluable points at key points in the set. Harry Brokking replaced starting setter Kieran O’Malley with captain Ben Pipes at 9:13 but some power hitting from Cristian Chitigoi kept the pressure on the GB defense. Brokking was forced into a time-out after Andy Pink was denied by a huge block from Dragos Pavel but Andrei Laza served a clean ace on the next point to take Romania to 19:13 and within sight of closing out the set. Haldane was then blocked by Romanian captain Radu Began as GB trailed by seven points but the home team closed the gap at the end of the set, prompting Stelian Moculescu to take his first time-out as his team led by just three points (22:19). GB closed to within two points at 21:23 when Chitigoi’s hit was long but he recovered to wipe the next point off the block and give Romania their first set point. Mark Plotyczer then put too much power on his spike from four and Romania took the set 25-21.

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