The SSC Schwerin volleyball players lost the second final game for the German championship. On Wednesday evening (April 17, 2024), the Mecklenburg women suffered a 2:3 (14:25, 21:25, 26:24, 25:22, 12:15) defeat at MTV Stuttgart. In the “Best of Five” series the score is now 1:1.
The game was hard to beat in terms of drama. The hosts already looked like the sure winners with a 2-0 set lead and a 20:13 lead in the third period. But then the Schwerin women showed great morale and were able to equalize to 2-2. In the tiebreak, Stuttgart had better nerves.
In game three of the final series next Saturday, the SCC will have home advantage again – and with it the chance to take a 2-1 lead in front of their own audience.
SSC with a weak start
After the hard-fought 3:2 (25:27, 25:20, 25:12, 15:25, 15:9) win in the opening game last Saturday in Schwerin, coach Felix Koslowski’s team was in the first away game of the final series inferior to the first sentence in all respects. In particular, the North Germans initially didn’t have much to counter the power of diagonal attacker Krystal Rivers. After 20 minutes, Eline Timmerman decided the first round with a point of 25:14 for the reigning champions.
Schwerin improves, but cannot turn things around
In the second section, the spectators in the Scharrena – including Rivers’ mother, who came especially from the USA – saw a balanced game. But then the Swabians pulled away to 20:15. But the SSC showed morale, shortened the score to 19:21 and caused nervousness on the MTV bench. Stuttgart coach Konstantin Bitter took a timeout to interrupt the opponent’s flow of play.
With success. After the break, Schwerin only managed two more points. There was also a bit of bad luck. An attacking shot from the Mecklenburg women landed on the edge of the net at the set point for MTV and jumped out of bounds from there.
Koslowski team with a great comeback
In the third round it initially looked as if the Stuttgart team would make short work of the SSC. They quickly took the lead with 9:5 and 14:8. The Koslowski team was able to temporarily reduce the deficit to three points (12:15). But when Stuttgart pulled away again to 20:13, the preliminary decision seemed to have been made. But the Schwerin women didn’t give up and made an impressive comeback. First they managed to equalize to 21:21, then they even took the lead and finally converted their second set point to make it 26:24.
SSC unleashed after winning the set
The loss of the set and a controversial referee decision at the beginning of the fourth round completely derailed the hosts. The SSC was able to pull away to 10:1 and thus laid the foundation for winning the section. The MTV found its form again in the first two and a half sets and was able to reduce the score to 22:24. A serve from Britt Bongaerts into the net gave the Schwerinners the 2-2 equalizer.
Stuttgart in the tiebreak with greater nerves
As in the first championship final, the tiebreak had to decide. And in this, the Mecklenburgers quickly fell behind by three points. When the score was 3:6, Koslowski tried to counteract this with a timeout – in vain. Stuttgart moved ahead to 13:7 and soon had their first match point at 14:9. Once again the SSC fought back against defeat. But then Alexis Hart put an end to the volleyball drama with the point to make it 15:12 after more than two hours.
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North Magazine | April 18, 2024 | 19:30 o’clock