Winners in the hardship of act 1 of these quarter-finals, the Touraine team this time showcased all their talent to dominate this match from start to finish. They now lead 2-0 in this quarter-final and will qualify for the semi-finals if they win again in Nice on Thursday, April 14.
The suspense did not last long. Even though Nice initially created the illusion of a contest in the beginning of the first set (3-6), they couldn’t withstand the absolutely monstrous performance of Kevin Tillie. During his service series, the Touraine receiver-attacker delivered three aces, extending the home team’s lead to six points (14-12, then 18-12). And even though Steven Marshall delayed the inevitable by scoring three successive points (23-17), TVB secured the set on a failed serve by Matias Giraudo (25-18).
It was the same scenario in the second set: this time, under Zeljko Coric’s serve, TVB created an initial gap (10-6) which they managed (15-10, 21-15) before concluding on an attack error by Marin Dukic (25-19).
In the third set, neck and neck until 13-13, Nice once again saw Tours VB take off, this time driven by Luciano Palonsky and Dmytro Teryomenko (17-14). Six consecutive points later, TVB was close to finishing the set (23-16). And while Nice erased a match point, Teryomenko didn’t hesitate to secure the victory for his team (25-19).
