Olympiacos reach Women’s CEV Challenge Cup semis
 

After beating Hungary’s Swietelsky Bekescsaba, Olympiacos’ women’s volleyball team reached the CEV Women’s Challenge Cup semifinals for the third time in four years.

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After a 3-1 away win in Hungary in the first leg, Olympiacos just needed to win two sets at home in the second leg to advance on aggregate. They then comfortably won the first set 25-17, putting themselves just one set away from reaching the semifinals. However, they quickly went down 1-5 in the second set. Despite that, the Erythrolefkes were able to turn it around and win the set 25-17 to book their spot in the semifinals. The Hungarians went on to win the next three sets (20-25, 21-25, and 9-15), but it did not have any impact on the outcome as the Greeks still advanced 5-4 on aggregate. 

This is now Olympiacos’ third time into the semifinals of this competition over the past four years. The Erythrolefkes finished runners-up in 2016-17, and were champions in 2017-18. Their title in 2017-18 happened to be the first European trophy in women’s volleyball in club history.

In the previous rounds, Olympiacos beat Israel’s Hapoel Kfar Saba (6-2 aggregate) in the round of 32, and Russia’s Yenisei Krasnoyarsk (also 6-2 aggregate) in the round of 16. They will now face Beziers VB from France in the semifinals. The other semifinal will be played between Germany’s Dresdner SC and Turkey’s THY Istanbul. The first legs will take place on March 18, while the second legs will be played on March 25. Olympiacos will play the first leg at home.

Greece had another team in the quarterfinals, as AO Thiras Santorini had defeated Kosovo’s KV Drita Gjilan (6-0 aggregate) in the round of 32, and Switzerland’s Kanti Schaffhausen (5-4 aggregate) in the round of 16. The Cycladic team then won the first leg of their quarterfinal 3-1 against Dresdner SC, only to lose the second leg by the same score. The tie was then decided by a golden set, which the Germans won 15-13.

By: Andrew Stamas

Image source: to10.gr

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