BR volleys turn final series
Show of power sends record champions into ecstasy
April 28, 2024, 6:26 p.m
Never gave up and took advantage of the opportunity in front of their own fans: The BR Volleys are the renewed German champions in volleyball. They were already dangerously behind in the final series against Friedrichshafen, but they equalized. In the showdown in Berlin they then dominate their opponents. There are also series champions among women.
The BR Volleys have completed their race to catch up in the final series for the German championship and have become the sole record holders. In the sold-out Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, the volleyball series champion won the decisive fifth game with a dominant performance 3-0 (25:16, 25:16, 25:17) against rivals VfB Friedrichshafen.
The Volleys won the series in best-of-five mode 3-2. As in 2022, the Berliners made up a 0-2 deficit after the first two games. It is the eighth title in a row for the Volleys, who now have 14 championships in total, one more than Friedrichshafen.
“We enjoyed every point, we laughed on the field,” said Timothée Carle, who will leave Berlin with the championship title. “It was a tough final series. We got our self-confidence back with the two previous wins,” said the Frenchman after his fourth championship title with Berlin at Dyn. The BR Volleys were “really well prepared” for the decider. “We had a lot of energy.” Thilo Späth-Westerholt, VfB managing director, was particularly disappointed with how the last duel went: “The final series would have deserved a close game. Today we went down.”
Friedrichshafen had no chance in the fifth game
The 8,553 fans in the hall created an impressive atmosphere right from the start, which visibly inspired the home team. Thanks to good defensive work and powerful attacks, the Berliners were 9:3 ahead after a 6:0 run and completely controlled the action. The Friedrichshafen team had no answer, especially to volley diagonal attacker Marek Sotola.
The audience’s cheering during the break was estimated at 120 decibels. The Berliners quickly took a clear lead in the second half. Setter Johannes Tille repeatedly put his teammates in good positions. Away from Michal Superlak, the guests struggled to attack.
The Häflers were initially able to make the third set more even, but the defending champions again gained a cushion that they never gave up. Berlin versus Friedrichshafen is the eternal duel of German volleyball: the teams met in the final for the eleventh time in a row. There has been no other champion since 1997.
Stuttgart also repeats the coup
Joy erupts.
(Photo: dpa)
The women’s champions are also called the same as last year: Allianz MVT Stuttgart. The team achieved the hat trick and won the fifth and decisive final game against main round winners and record champions SSC Palmberg Schwerin 3:1 (17:25, 25:20, 25:13, 25:13). With its fourth triumph overall, Stuttgart completed the double for the second time after winning the cup at the beginning of March.
“It was a brutal final series, also because after the third game we already had the feeling that we were at the bottom. Schwerin demanded everything from us until the end,” commented Stuttgart coach Konstantin Bitter in the confetti rain from the Swabian fans on the Dyn- Microphone the success.
His first championship was not only emotional for the coach: his successful predecessor, Tore Aleksandersen, had resigned the previous year after winning the title due to cancer and succumbed to his illness a few weeks later.
For Schwerin, the unexpectedly clear defeat in the showdown in front of its own fans meant an extension of its dry spell. The SSC’s twelfth and so far last championship was six years ago.