Volley Toggenburg wins with a cohesive team effort at home against Groupe E Valtra.
Image: PD
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At first nothing seemed to indicate a home win. The Toggenburg women acted visibly nervous at the beginning and in the meantime were five points behind. Especially in the block work, the guests were clearly superior at the beginning.
The St. Gallen team also struggled offensively in the first set. This was most evident in the fact that it took multiple attacks to score a point. The first set went to Valtra at 19:25, who also hardly ever made any mistakes.
Almost single-handedly to 19:19
The second set also started with advantages for Val-de-Travers. Especially when accepting, the home team acted erratically at times and thus fell behind at 10:15 in the meantime. But now the big hour of the American top scorer in the service of Volley Toggenburg came.
Virtually all attacks were launched over 24-year-olds, which the home team practically single-handedly advanced to 19-19. Of course, Valtra wasn’t beaten yet. But three individual mistakes by the opposing top scorer Daria Butkevich, who otherwise showed a usual strong game, tipped the set in favor of Volley Toggenburg. Joanna Mazzoleni converted the first set ball to 25:23.
The third set was a sure thing
Volleyburg came out of the break much better. The mistakes made by the guests piled up and the Wattwilers knew how to take advantage of this ice cold. With a lot of pressure on the service and a stronger offensive, the home team pulled away to a reassuring 12:5.
Although Valtra was able to fight back to four points at times, the burden from the start of the sentence was too great. Volley Toggenburg remained highly concentrated and was clearly superior in attack with Harlee Kekauoha and Sabryn Roberts and especially in the middle with Jasmin Kuch and Joanna Mazzoleni. The third set clearly went to the home team at 25:16.
Volley Toggenburg plays himself into a frenzy
Raiffeisen Volley Toggenburg was now the game-determining team. Whipped up by the fans present and the increasing error rate at Valtra, coach Mäsi Erni’s team immediately pulled away.
The guests were now falling apart. The quality of the acceptance decreased more and more and Valtra acted too one-dimensionally on the offensive. The guests also seemed to have said goodbye to the game mentally.
280 spectators in the Rietsteinhalle
Not so at Raiffeisen Volley Toggenburg. Here, the American attackers continued to power up and won a total of eleven match points. They could easily get over the fact that the women of Wattwil needed six of them.
After that there was no holding back in the Rietsteinhalle. Raiffeisen Volley Toggenburg celebrated a valuable 3:1 victory to the frenetic cheering of the 280 or so fans present.
There is still one win left to stay in the league
Volley Toggenburg’s victory is well deserved. With a few exceptions, coach Mäsi Erni’s team was highly concentrated and delivered an impressive performance.
Today’s victory is mainly due to a solid team effort. And he’s worth his weight in gold. Volley Toggenburg now needs a win to make it into the league. The women from Wattwil will have their first opportunity next Saturday away in Val-de Travers.
Volley Toggenburg is collaborating to organize a fan bus to the decisive game next Saturday, February 26, 2022 in Couvet. With an away win, the Wattwilerinnen can create the direct league. The bus leaves the Rietsteinhalle at 9:00 a.m. There are other boarding options at the Coop gas station in Stelz at 9.20 a.m. and at the Matzingen car park at 9.30 a.m.
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