France - Ligue A 2009/2010

Tours advanced in final with an amazing victory.

The game started quite disappointingly with both opposites (Rouzier and David Konecny) struggling to score. In the end, Poitiers won the first set 25-23 despite many serve errors. In the second set, Rouzier began to be in a good rythm when Konecny was awful, completely unable to score. He was like a lost soul on the court until the end of the game. Poitiers was heading to a quick victory, leading 14-10 in the third set when Earvin Ngapeth decided to lead the charge, and score 3 aces. These points kept Tours afloat, but Poitiers entered the money-time with a 22-20 lead. That's when David Konecny came to the line to serve. As everything went wrong with him, he was careful not to take any risk, but his reputation as a tremendous server were enough to put a slight pressure on Poitiers. Tours was able to defend three times on Poitiers's spikes and three times, the canadian outside-hitter Gaumont-Casias scored huge spikes to conclude the good defenses. On the 4th one (set point for Tours) Gaumont-Casias simply scored a kill block.
In the 4th set, Tours was able to get a 2 or 3 points lead quite early, and keep it until the end (the lead changed from 2 to 4 points). Ngapeth and Gaumont-Casias did the job spiking hard, Petr Konecny helped with a few blocks, and David Konecny served well even if he was spiking very poorly. Tours won the set 25-20 and then came the tie-breaker.

After Tours lead 5-4, Poitiers took the lead and reached the technical timeout with a 8-6 lead. Then... I don't know what happened. Czech middle-blocker Ales Holubec went to serve for Tours and his floating serves lead almost all Poitiers's spikes in his fellow countryman Petr Konecny's hands. He scored something like 4 to 5 kill blocks in a row ! Tours ended the game with a 9-0 streak, and 7 kill blocks in the tie-breaker !
Petr Konecny, MVP of the game, was responsible for 13 kill blocks all over the game !

I watched 2nd semifinal from Ngapeth aces in 3rd set to the end of the match. Do you have match stats of both semifinals or at least top scorer?

I've found it:
http://www.lnv.fr/index.php?id…=1&idsite=1&match=COM005#
http://www.lnv.fr/index.php?id…=1&idsite=1&match=COM006#

so I suppose I will find final stats at
http://www.lnv.fr/index.php?id…=1&idsite=1&match=COM007#

Quote from forzalube

so I suppose I will find final stats at
http://www.lnv.fr/index.php?id…=1&idsite=1&match=COM007#

I think so !

An other cup for Tours.

The french cup was the first trophy in Tours history back in 2003.
7 years after this first victory, Tours has now 5 french cups.

Tours defeated Montpellier rather easilly in straight sets: 25-21, 25-21, 25-18.
With David Konecny back to his normal level, Tours simply played better than Montpellier in the end of the 1st and 2nd set, and then had an easy 3rd set to close the game and secure the final victory.

After his amazing 1/2 final, Petr Konecny was again MVP, scoring 6/7 of his spikes along with 5 kill blocks.

You can watch the final 4 games in streaming on http://91.121.19.118/portail/sl/portail.aspx

29th round

Ajaccio 3/0 Montpellier 25-21 25-22 25-16 P2
Rennes 3/0 Narbonne 25-22 25-19 25-22 P2
Saint-Quentin 0/3 AS Cannes 22-25 20-25 23-25 P2
Paris 3/1 Tourcoing 16-25 25-17 25-19 25-17 P2
Toulouse 1/3 Tours 22-25 22-25 25-21 21-25 P2
Alès 0/3 Nice 23-25 23-25 20-25 P2
Sète 3/1 Beauvais 22-25 25-18 25-18 25-15 P2
Avignon 1/3 Poitiers 21-25 30-28 15-25 12-25 P2

Ranking

1. Tours 75
2. Sète 69
3. AS Cannes 57
4. Poitiers 56
5. Beauvais 52
6. Saint-Quentin 50
7. Tourcoing 49
8. Rennes 45

9. Paris 42
10. Toulouse 40
11. Nice 37
12. Montpellier 35
13. Ajaccio 27

14. Avignon 22
15. Alès 20
16. Narbonne 20

End of the thriller. Ajaccio and Rennes won the races for the 13th and 8th spot in the ranking. The last round will decide whether Cannes or Poitiers is 3rd, and which of St Quentin, Beauvais and Tourcoing will be 5th, 6th and 7th.

30th round

Poitiers 3/1 Ajaccio 22-25 25-22 25-20 25-22 P2
Montpellier 3/2 Rennes 25-13 20-25 29-27 26-28 15-7 P2
Narbonne 3/2 Saint-Quentin 16-25 25-22 27-25 25-27 15-13 P2
AS Cannes 3/0 Paris 26-24 25-22 25-22 P2
Tourcoing 1/3 Toulouse 13-25 25-16 23-25 19-25 P2
Tours 3/1 Alès 25-23 19-25 25-18 25-18 P2
Nice 3/2 Sète 25-19 22-25 22-25 26-24 15-13
Beauvais 3/1 Avignon 25-20 25-23 22-25 25-19 P2

Final Ranking

1. Tours 78
2. Sète 70
3. AS Cannes 60
4. Poitiers 59
5. Beauvais 55
6. Saint-Quentin 51
7. Tourcoing 49
8. Rennes 46
9. Toulouse 43
10. Paris 42
11. Nice 39
12. Montpellier 37
13. Ajaccio 27
14. Avignon 22
15. Narbonne 22
16. Alès 20

Play-off 1/4 final:

1st game (april 14th):
Tours - Rennes
Sète - Tourcoing
Cannes - Saint Quentin
Poitiers - Beauvais

2nd game (april 17th):
Rennes - Tours
Tourcoing - Sète
Saint Quentin - Cannes
Beauvais - Poitiers

3rd game on april 20th if needed.

Quote from Armel

30th round
AS Cannes 3/0 Paris 26-24 25-22 25-22 P2

Nice to see Kruyner in the Cannes starting line-up (and winning in straight sets). Is Pujol injured? Is he leaving again after this season? (I believe he still has a contract with Treviso)

Pujol got injured against Poitiers (26th round), so Kruyner is a starter since this game.

Cannes struggled against Ajaccio and lost to Rennes, but overall the team played rather well with Kruyner.

I think Pujol will leave at the end of the season. Cannes is rumored to have contacts with Takaniko from Toulouse. (Takaniko leaving Toulouse is official)

1/4-finals
till 2 wins
Tours - Rennes 3-0 (25-17 25-19 25-19) stats (1-0)
Rennes - Tours 1-3 (25-22 18-25 20-25 20-25) stats (0-2)

Arago de Sète - Tourcoing Lille 3-1 (23:25, 25:20, 25:23, 25:21) stats (1-0)
Tourcoing Lille - Arago de Sète 3:2 (25:19, 25:20, 19:25, 26:28, 15:10) stats (1-1)
Arago de Sète - Tourcoing Lille 3:1 (25:21, 21:25, 25:20, 25:14) (2:1)

AS Cannes - Saint-Quentin 1:3 (20:25, 15:25, 25:15, 20:25) (0-1)
Saint-Quentin - AS Cannes 2:3 (28:30, 25:20, 25:15, 20:25, 12:15) (1-1)
AS Cannes - Saint-Quentin 3:2 (18:25, 25:18, 27:25, 30:32, 16:14) 2:1

Stade Poitevin Poitiers - Beauvais Oise 3:0 (25:23, 25:23, 25:19) 1:0
Beauvais Oise - Stade Poitevin Poitiers 2:3 21:25, 28:26, 25:23, 22:25, 8:15 0:2

1/2-finals
till 2 wins
24.04 Tours Volley-Ball - Stade Poitevin Poitiers
28.04 Stade Poitevin Poitiers - Tours Volley-Ball

24.04 Arago de Sète - AS Cannes
28.04 AS Cannes - Arago de Sète

2009-2010 regular season team from l'Equipe:

coach : Eric NGAPETH (Tours)
Libero: Jénia GREBENNIKOV (Rennes)
Setter : Benjamin TONIUTI (Sète)
Middle Blocker : Oliver KIEFFER (Poitiers), Petr KONECNY (Tours)
Outside hitter: Earvin NGAPETH (Tours), Thiago ARANHA (Tourcoing)
Opposite : Pavel BARTIK (Beauvais)

Backup: Pierre Pujol (Cannes), Romain Vadeleux (St Quentin), Baptiste Geiler (Sète), David Konecny (Tours), Alexis Gonzalès (Tours).

MVP: Oliver Kieffer

Many things to say about this team, but I must say I agree with the choices of L'Equipe.

1° Grebennikov (19 years old), Ngapeth (19 years old) and Toniutti (20 years old) are part of this team and it's fully deserved. Grebennikov is a great libero. Maybe Gonzales is able to play at a higher level right now, but he was less consistent than the player from Rennes. Toniutti is without any doubt the main reason of Sète's great season.I think than Bazin is currently better but he was not able to stop Paris from sinking. Then I guess that's putting him out of award consideration. I'm not very fond of Pujol's work in Cannes, and I think he's second only because Le Marrec and De Kergret shared duties in Tours. And Earvin Ngapeth has been without any doubt the best outside hitter of the league the whole season. Matter of fact these 3 players have been called in NT by Blain.

2° To me, one of the few controversial post is Thiago Aranha's. Sure, he's arguably the best outside hitter of the league, but he was injured too often this season and too often he was not able to perform at his true level. In the end his stats are pretty disappointing, and he has not been the factor he should have been in Tourcoing.

3° An other questionable point is why Kieffer is being MVP ? OK, he's a great MB, no doubt about that. He's also a great captain, always doing his duty, often taking a leading role in the game. But come on, he's a MB ! He's out of the court (on back posts) almost half of the game, and he's not even scoring so much point for his team. I think that in his own team, Rouzier, Maréchal or Boula have more impact on the game than him. And this is not even the best team of the season. I think only an outstanding performance from a MB should earn him a MVP trophy. And over a whole season it's almost impossible.

4° Then Bartik is the best opposite and Konecny is the closest to him: no question about it.

5° Kieffer and Konecny are deserving a spot in the team. Vadeleux is not a bad choice either, but so were Stanek (Toulouse), Hardy-Dessources (Cannes), Senger (Sète) or Trèfle (Rennes). I think Kieffer is here only because he's the captain of the NT (and Poitiers), and Konecny because he's been huge at the french cup final 4 and because he's playing with the best team of the season.

1/2 finals

Tours 3/1 Poitiers 22-25 25-20 25-20 25-22
Sète 2/3 AS Cannes 22-25 36-34 25-22 23-25 19-21 P2

Solid play from Tours, with only 14 errors in 4 sets. On the other side, Poitiers made too many mistakes (including 17 serve errors ) to be threatening a team that has still not lose any home game in the championship.
Now, the next round of the derby (There's only 100 km from Tours to Poitiers) wednesday in Poitiers, might be a complete different story, but Poitiers is under pressure now.

In the other game, Cannes was able to defeat Sète in a very tight game. I expect the next game in Cannes to be also tight. I think that Sète made a mistake starting without Simovski. Even if he was recovering from an injury, he proved to be a better option than veteran Bry. Maybe that cost them the 1st set.

1/2 finals 2nd game:

Poitiers 2/3 Tours 17-25 25-27 25-19 25-20 18-20 P2 (0:2 series over)
AS Cannes 0/3 Sète 12-25 20-25 22-25 P2 (1:1 last game saturday in Sète)

Tours is qualified for the final after a victory in Poitiers.
Tours won the first set easily after a 2-9 start. In the second set, Poitiers had a good start (4-0) but Tours came back quickly to 6-5. Then Tours slowly came back and take the lead until 16-20. That was when Poitiers made a comeback to 22-21, and the end of the set was close until Tours's victory.
With 2 sets to 0, Olivier Lecat (Poitiers's coach) made an incredible choice: Rouzier on the bench, and Maréchal (90% of perfect reception so far) as opposite ! These changes proved to be good. Maréchal and Frangolacci went unstoppable on attack, Frangolacci and Lotman also being excellent in reception. Thas lead Poitiers to win the 3rd and 4th set and head to the tie-breaker.
In the tie-breaker, the player were undergoing a strong pressure, and the attack efficiency went down for both teams. Poitiers was doing slightly better (eventually leading 11- 08 ) but Tours came back with a good block from Petr Konecny, a clever attack from David Konecny and finally an ace from Earvin Ngapeth (13-13).
Poitiers had a match-point at 14-13, but then at 14-14, Maréchal made a mistake giving Tours the match-point.
After 5 match-points for Tours, Ngapeth attacked a bad reception from Poitiers and closed the game.

Once again, Earvin Ngapeth proved to be an amazing competitor. He is a powerful spiker, but he is not jumping really high. He is really skilled but so are many players (even of his age). What is quite impressive is that he is a very clever player often making the good choice in difficult position. You could say he has a amazing volleyball IQ, and is feeling the game really well (he's even performing very good sets when he has too !). Put along that he is a relentless fighter, and all together you get a monster of a winner. This guy just has the ability to play bigger in big games. Especially when it's tight.

In Cannes, Sète won easily despite missing the young french international libero Rowlandson. Ragondet had to play libero and Frederic Barais (youth and junior European Champion 2007 and 2008 ) replaced him as outside hitter. I don't know what's happen to Cannes, Pujol played only the first set, Moreau played awfully and was replaced by Feughouo. It looks like Cannes completely missed this game.

Kevin Le Roux must have made a great game I guess Scoring 20 against Sete, out of which 7 blocks and 7 aces!!! So... the final in France is Tours vs. Cannes.

Congratulations to Tours VB on winning their second title in history! They were the strongest team in France this season, leading also after the end of the regular season, and even clinching the title after 2-0 victories over Cannes! I expected a bit more interesting final, maybe in 3 games, but Tours totally deserve their victory