The cannonballs of Fabian Plak in the service and Patrik Indra on the attack ended up getting the better of the resistance of Saint-Nazaire, heroic in block defense this Wednesday evening in Chaumont. But it is indeed the Chaumontais, 3es of the regular phase and four times finalists in the last five contested editions (champion in 2017), who will travel to Nantes on Sunday for the first round of the semi-finals (return Wednesday 26 and possible support Saturday 29).
The Haut-Marnais had to fight until the tie-break of this fifth match of the quarter-finals to overcome the Nazairiens, promoted this season, in a match under high tension. The fault was partly due to a video challenge failure, which led the players to protest regularly, the old fashioned way, to the main referee.
Shaken by the attacks of Kyle Ensing (19 points), and central Helder Spencer (20 points, 3 blocks, 1 ace), Chaumont knew how to make his bench speak (Plak, but also the libero Pierre Bouleau, entered in the third set) , tighten the screw on service in the last two sets, and rely on the left arm of Patrik Indra (27 points, 64% efficiency in attack), to maintain his near-invincibility at Palestra (two defeats in the regular season, against in Tours and Nantes).
“It’s all about the details, but we also had the advantage of having our audience to push us”
Raphaël Corre, captain of Chaumont, at the microphone of beIN Sports
“We’ve been playing this team for ten days, we know each other by heart, analyzed Raphaël Corre, the captain of CVB 52, at the microphone of beIN Sports. It’s all about the details, but we also had the advantage of having our audience to push us, to get the necessary resources. »
Like Nantes-Rezé, Tours, qualified in three rounds, had been waiting for the name of his opponent since last Friday. It will be Tourcoing, winner 3-1 in Narbonne, who finds the last four of the championship for the first time since 2009 (finalist).
Saint-Nazaire and Narbonne join Sète and Montpellier, eliminated in the quarterfinals by Nantes-Rezé and Tours, Paris and Poitiers, 9e et 10e of the Championship, in the mini-qualifying tournament for the European Cup (a place in C3) which begins on Saturday.
