Volley Nice was hosting Montpellier, one of the top teams in the championship.
After three defeats, Mladen Kasic’s players were called upon to react to avoid sinking to the bottom of the rankings.
But the opponent was tough and ultimately stronger than them: 1-3 (21-25, 22-25, 30-28, 21-25).
Despite a satisfactory performance and a superb comeback at the end of the third set (at 18-22, and thanks to the tactical choice of their coach who sent the young Possamai to serve on the court—he did so brilliantly with an ace that set the tone for the comeback—they recovered four points before winning after a nail-biting point-by-point finish), the team from Nice succumbed to the game from the Languedoc team, who always had the keys to the match in their hands.
With 47% in attack, 52% in reception, and 25 service errors, it was impossible to do better. Ivan Kolev (20 points) and the opposite Hermans Egleskans (26) increased the score against the young-and-blue team, who moved down to the 10th place (5 wins-7 losses) in the rankings before two crucial matches: next weekend at Narbonne, a direct competitor for relegation, and the last Friday of February at Palmera with the reception of Toulouse, an opponent that should be within their reach.
Les Aigles fell to Grenoble, the virtual leader with a 6-point disadvantage due to an administrative decision.
Stan Sutor’s men were coming off a positive series (16 points out of 24 in the last 8 matches) and especially wanted to topple the Alps team.
They did not succeed but produced a strong performance and narrowly lost (2-4 (1-2, 1-0, 0-2) in a fantastic final).
Despite this, at 3/4 of the championship, they are in 9th place (13 wins-20 losses), 2 points away from the playoffs, before the final sprint.
Finally, another bad evening for the OGCN handball players who returned from Touraine with a defeat in their baggage: 21-25 at Chambray, who took advantage of this victory to surpass them in the standings.
The team from Nice, in 10th place (2 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses), is unable to fully express all their potential.
The evidence comes from this match: after a first half where they were on equal footing with the locals (score 13-14), the red-and-black team was overtaken by their opponents at the beginning of the second half, eventually being forced to chase after the result and allowing their opponents to control the game and… the match.
The reception of Nantes on the next day of the championship will have to allow them to reconnect with victory to bolster the standings and give a turn to a particularly lackluster season.
