Krakow, Poland, December 16, 2017 - Cucine Lube Civitanova swept local favourites PGE Skra Belchatow in straight sets to become the first team in six years to play in an FIVB Men's Club World Championship final - but in the winners' camp they know they need to up their game in the final against Zenit Kazan.
Giampaolo Medei, Lube Civitanova Coach: "I think that in this match my team didn't play the best volleyball. I think it's quite normal when we play a very important match it's hard to play 100% in such a tough tournament. The key was my team didn't give up especially in the first set, we kept calm in this difficult moment. We kept focus on our technique and the mentality. For sure we need to play better tomorrow. The key will be to forget about these problems and give our 100% on the court. Maybe the game will be the most important in the whole season. If we will keep our mentality tomorrow we can fight for the Club Championship against Zenit."
Taylor Sander, Lube Civitanova opposite: "We are very excited, I want to congratulate Skra for being in the semis. It was a nice game for me, it was a fun playing with my team here. The fans are so great and it's a great place to play volleyball. Today we knew what we wanted to do – we served and passed well. We are very excited to be in the final against Kazan. They are one of the best teams in the world and they proved that many times. For us being to be able to represent Italy and our club Lube in the final is something that was a goal of ours. We are also excited, because we will have a great battle to play against them and we will continue our volley."
Roberto Piazza, Skra Belchatow Coach: "Lube played a normal good game. They wanted to make a step further and had a chance to play in the final. They played with heart. The first set was in our hands, but in the end we started to think that we have something to lose. When you've started thinking like this, you are losing the game. This was the dead moment for me and the crucial moment for this match. In the second set we started to play when we were down losing five points and then we started thinking there is nothing to lose. We had such a weak starts and then we lost each set to 23."
Mariusz Wlazly, Skra Belchatow Captain: "Congratulations to Lube. What can I say – we regret we didn't use our chance and missed a lot of points. We lost each set to 23, but with a five-point difference it's hard to chase a team like this. We had some points of advantage in the first set, but we could not use it. In the next sets we needed to follow the score which was difficult. We have a lesson to analyse, we need to find the positives from this game."
Quick links - Volleyball:FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship 2017
FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship 2017 - ScheduleFIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship 2017 - Teams
FIVB.com - VolleyballFIVB.com
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