For the start of the 15th day of the Marmara SpikeLigue, Nice Volley Ball faced off against their neighbors from Cannes. A derby with a taste of revenge for Brice Donat’s men.
Nice Volley Ball had an appointment for the return match against AS Cannes. Winners (3-1) in Nice at the end of November, the Cannes team was looking for a third consecutive home victory to climb up the rankings after a complicated start to the season, just like NVB. Since then, the Eagles have returned to 7th place in the league and are on an impressive winning streak since early December (five wins in six matches).
The Eagles started the match well. Dawid Dulski and Wessel Keemick stood out to offer the first lead of the match. A slight lead that melted away like snow in the sun as the Cannes team scored a 6-2 run thanks to a great collective performance highlighted by Omar Biglino then Joao Noleto, already decisive in the first match. Nice paid for slight inaccuracies, especially with passing, which was not precise enough in key moments. After a few good sequences, the Nice team managed to come back to 19-19 and seemed capable of taking the first set. However, another communication error and a fairly weak reception statistic at the start of the match allowed Cannes to pull away once again and take the first set (25-22).
As they returned from the locker room, Cannes continued at the same pace. Very strong in serve-block, the Cannes team seemed unshakeable. The gap widened inexorably, going up to +5. It was a logical score as Nice was dominated by sequences, unable to react. It was necessary to rely on individual performances by Wessel Keemick at the block or Merrick McHenry serving to see NVB come back within one point. Unable to equalize, the Eagles lost the second set (25-23) despite a nice comeback.
Nice not precise enough, Cannes shaky
The beginning of the third set was much more contested. The visitors of the evening regained confidence and felt they were capable of turning the match around. As in the beginning of the match, Nice experienced a weak reception phase in this set. And it happened again at 5-5. The Nice team couldn’t adapt to the Cannes block and found themselves powerless. With a four-point lead, the Dragons could be at ease but released the pressure quite strangely to allow the Eagles to come back to 17-16. Xander Ketrzynski eventually brought Cannes back on the right track. The match became tense. Lohan Nack-Minyem and Dawid Dulski did wonders at the block. The Cannes team was shaky in converting their first chance to conclude the match. While the game seemed to be able to swing from one side to the other, no one managed to make the difference. Until an ace by Joao Noleto gave victory to Cannes (25-22 / 25-23 / 33-31).
The home team won three sets to none, a first for more than a year, which allowed them to come within a point of Nice in the standings and reignite their playoff race. On Nice’s side, they will have to forget this unfinished match before hosting Narbonne next Friday at 8 p.m.
