Yesterday, the Nice team recorded their second defeat of the season in as many away games. Beaten 3 sets to 0, the team from the French Riviera now sits at the bottom of the standings.
Second match and second (heavy) defeat for Nice Volley-Ball. After being clearly dominated in Rennes (3-0) at the opening of the 2018-2019 season, Mladen Kasic’s players were defeated again, with the same score, in Montpellier.
A closely contested first set
In two matches, the Nice team has yet to win a single set. The offense is struggling while the defense is shaky. As with the Bretons on the first day, Zeljko Coric’s teammates held their ground against the Montpellier team in the first set (26-24). A warm-up for the locals who would dominate the next two sets (25-18, 25-18).
The visitors, for their part, gave away many points through direct errors. 16 mistakes in the last two sets for Nice compared to only 6 for the Montpellier team. Costly errors while the visitors slowly found their rhythm in attack. Indeed, points scored from their own attacks increased over the three sets (9 for the 1st set, 12 for the 2nd, and 15 for the 3rd). The locals, however, were consistent in this area with 14 winning attacks per set.
A last place
Despite these two defeats, Nice Volley-ball should not panic. An important point of the season is that there will be no relegation to a lower division. The Nice team can therefore calmly look to the future. Another point is that they have only played two matches while their competitors have already played 3 matches. They will have the opportunity to recover next Friday in Sète, ranked 7th, for a third consecutive away game.
Pierre Ferrand
