CEV CL: Halkbank Ankara Shut Down Tours VB

Bulgarian Tsvetan Sokolov led the match with 15 kills, two aces and a block for Halkbank Ankara

    Nick Hoag and his Tours VB team will have to wait until the new year to try and get their first win of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. They fell 3-1 (25-23, 26-28, 19-25, 12-25) to Halkbank Ankara on Wednesday in the 4th Leg of play. Tours VB of France fell to 0-4 while Halkbank Ankara of Turkey moves to 3-1. They both have two games remaining in the league round.

    Halkbank Ankara was led by Tsvetan Sokolov of Bulgaria who scored 18 points off 15 kills, two aces and one block. Tours VB leading scorer was David Konecny of the Czech Republic with 14 points, all of which were kills.

    Tours VB had a strong start winning the first set off the back of 18 kills and three blocks. The second set saw much of the same with Tours VB dominating in the kills department. Despite having three set points they were unable to close out the set as Halkbank equalized the match.

    The turning point of the contest was when Tours VB setter Nuno Pinheiro took a red card while celebrating a point at 26-26 of the second set. This led to a set point opportunity for Halkbank Ankara. They took advantage of it. Tours VB was shown the yellow card earlier in the set for protesting an out call.

    Halkbank Ankara took over the match in the third and fourth sets, overwhelming Tours VB with serve pressure and block defence. They had seven aces and nine blocks in the final two sets compared to Tours VB’s zero aces and two blocks.

    Canadian Nicholas Hoag did not start the match despite being Tours VB’s leading scorer so far in the competition. He scored six points off six kills after being subbed in at the start of both the third and fourth sets. He also recorded 6 errors.