The panthers also pass in the home of the Bisonte: another 3-0, 59th consecutive victory
SCANDICCI. The Imoco passes and looks. We could thus summarize, paraphrasing Dante, the situation of the panthers of Conegliano who, in the birthplace of the great poet, have earned access to their eighth consecutive semi-final championship and are now waiting to meet the opponent to be challenged starting next Wednesday. It will still be the Scandicci sports hall that will be able to give the answer already tonight, if the Savino del Bene were to overcome Busto’s butterflies in race 2 too; otherwise he will wait for Easter Eve.
Certainly Imoco, by eliminating Florence, put itself in front of a week free from competitions, closing the month of March with 8 games played; yesterday’s victory was even clearer and without particular drops in concentration, in front of a combative opponent only in the second set and probably satisfied by the outcome of the season that brought her to the quarter-finals, to the impossible match against Conegliano.
Compared to game 1 Santarelli leaves Adams on the bench for Hill, Mencarelli confirms the same sextet seen at Palaverde: some inaccuracies and misunderstandings in the yellow and blue half of the field keeps the first exchanges in balance. At 6-7 Egonu hits, who puts two aces on different trajectories and also triggers two fast cutting edges by De Kruijf; Sylla closes 7-15 after a very long exchange in which the protagonist is the wall of Conegliano, patient in containing the attacks of the blue.
And when the bisontines try to pass over, the second line covers all the spaces perfectly and builds one break after another: on 11-20 enter Gennari and Gicquel, who accompany the team under full sail to fill the box of the first set, in which there are also 4 errors in the service. Florence almost seems not to even want to try and goes to the change with a modest 28% in attack.
As in the first leg, the hosts react only to the resumption of the game, putting more grit and speed with Van Gestel and Nwakalor; the initial 5-2 is soon overturned to 5-7 by the blows of Hill, Sylla and Fahr. The Imoco, however, is not always impeccable on positioning in cover and touches less on the wall, even if three are blocked to contribute to the loot of the panthers.
Il Bisonte, for its part, attacks in a more aggressive way and Conegliano does not immediately find the countermeasures, reaching a maximum advantage of three points (15-18), soon recovered up to 19 equal with an ace from Cambi helped by the tape. The decisive backlash comes with Caravello’s profitable turn of service (ace over Enweonwu), crowned by the final block of Gicquel, the fifth of the set for the Imoco.
One of the rotations planned by Santarelli to sip the team’s energies in view of the grand finale of the season bears fruit: Sylla goes to rest and Adams responds promptly, putting in four consecutive points that are worth 4-7. Then it’s up to Fahr with two first halves and an ace to extend up to 7-14, before seeing Butigan for De Kruijf, Omoruti for Hill and again Gennari and Gicquel for Wolosz and Egonu.
The Imoco crosses the finish line almost by inertia, even if Florence is not the sacrificial victim. Once again the panthers are the top four in Italy. –
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