French LNV league 2010/2011

Is Skrimov playing as receiver or as opposite?

I would really like to test him in the NT

Result:

Beauvais 3/0 Toulouse 25-23 25-19 25-19 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 57
2. Poitiers 55
3. Sète * 41
4. AS Cannes 39
5. Rennes 38
6. Montpellier 36
7. Nantes Rezé 35
8. Tourcoing 34
9. Paris * 32
10. Beauvais * 31
11. Ajaccio 29
12. Toulouse 23
13. Nice * 19
14. St-Quentin 2

* one game less

24th day results:

Ajaccio 1/3 Montpellier 16-25 21-25 25-23 22-25 P2
Tours 3/0 Tourcoing 25-14 25-19 28-26 P2
Paris 3/0 Nice 25-17 25-14 25-23 P2
AS Cannes 3/1 Beauvais 23-25 25-22 25-22 25-22 P2
Toulouse 1/3 Rennes 16-25 16-25 25-23 23-25 P2
Sète 3/1 Poitiers 25-22 20-25 25-23 25-18 P2
St-Quentin 2/3 Nantes Rezé 23-25 25-23 26-24 17-25 8-15 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 60
2. Poitiers 55
3. Sète * 44
4. AS Cannes 42
5. Rennes 41
6. Montpellier 39
7. Nantes Rezé 37
8. Paris * 35
9. Tourcoing 34
10. Beauvais * 31
11. Ajaccio 29
12. Toulouse 23
13. Nice * 19
14. St-Quentin 3

* one game less

Comments:

Poitiers gave some rest to Rivera and Rouzier, and had two young players on court for the whole game. So you can say they simply let Sète win it.
The only real surprise is Nantes losing one point in St Quentin. Otherwise all the game ended with the best ranked team defeating its opponent.

Paris's convicing victory is another proof that the team finally found the good recipe. Yet, do not think they are going to take three points in Nice next Tuesday. Because this game should have been played in december, and Webber will not be allowed in. So will Paris be able to win away without him is questionnable.
Otherwise, it's now clear that Cannes is in great shape (despite Moreau still not being 100%), but Sète is now likely to end at 3rd place. The winner of the game between Rennes and Cannes next week will probably end 4th and have homecourt advantage for playoff 1/4 finals.

The most unclear now is the fight for rank 6 to 8. Montpellier and Nantes both have to defeat Tourcoing to secure playoff ticket. A victory in Nice might be enough for Paris, but they might want to get some points in beauvais or against Rennes if they want to avoid places 7 or 8. Tourcoing absolutely needs to defeat Nantes, but that might not be enough.
Beauvais needs a miracle.

Quote from Armel

Tours 3/0 Tourcoing 25-14 25-19 28-26 P2

In the first set, David Konecny had 7 aces, including 6 from 5-7 to 15-7, and the 7th on the set point !

Late games results:

Sète 3/0 Beauvais 25-21 25-12 25-20 P2
Nice 1/3 Paris 20-25 25-19 24-26 21-25 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 60
2. Poitiers 55
3. Sète 47
4. AS Cannes 42
5. Rennes 41
6. Montpellier 39
7. Paris 38
8. Nantes Rezé 37
9. Tourcoing 34
10. Beauvais 31
11. Ajaccio 29
12. Toulouse 23
13. Nice 19
14. St-Quentin 3

Comments:

Paris has now good chances to be in top 8. And the last spot will probably be played between Nantes and Tourcoing on saturday.
Nice can only hope for miracle now. Since Toulouse will host St Quentin in last day when they will play in Tours, it's doubtful they could fill the 4 points deficit they now have...

Tours will use this last game of regular season to honor Loïc De Kergret with a special night. So, I'm expecting him to play the whole game.

25th day results:

Montpellier 0/3 Tours 19-25 23-25 12-25 P2
Nice 2/3 Ajaccio 25-15 26-28 18-25 25-22 14-16 P2
Beauvais 1/3 Paris 21-25 23-25 25-15 21-25 P2
Rennes 0/3 AS Cannes 25-27 23-25 23-25 P2
Poitiers 0/3 Toulouse 24-26 18-25 20-25 P2
St-Quentin 2/3 Sète 23-25 25-21 25-19 21-25 18-20 P2
Nantes Rezé 3/2 Tourcoing 18-25 25-22 20-25 25-21 16-14 P2

Ranking:

1. Tours 63
2. Poitiers 55
3. Sète 49
4. AS Cannes 45
5. Paris 41
6. Rennes 41
7. Montpellier 39
8. Nantes Rezé 39
9. Tourcoing 35
10. Ajaccio 31
11. Beauvais 31
12. Toulouse 26
13. Nice 20
14. St-Quentin 4

Comments:
That's it! The top 8 is now known. Nantes defeated Tourcoing (I went to the game) and it's over for Beauvais and Tourcoing.
Now the raking from 5 to 8 is still to be defined. The 5th team will be the winner of the game Paris vs Rennes. Montpellier has very good chances to play against Sète since they only have to win 3-0 or 3-1 in Tourcoing. Since Tourcoing will now focus on the french cup they'll probably train the whole week with Molten balls (used for the french cup) and give some rest to starters to avoid injuries. That should help Montpellier to get 3 points.
If Montpellier get 3 points, Nantes won't be able to play against an other team than Tours or Poitiers. Playing against Tours or Poitiers will not make a big difference to Nantes. Both cities are 200 km from Nantes, both have such a better team that there is very little chance for Nantes to win. So Nantes doesn't need to focus much on the last game in Sète and can already prepare play-off season. Since Sète will do the same, it's pretty hard to guess who will win the game. There's only one thing sure: if Nantes simply want to enjoy a 1/4 final against Tours for their first season in Ligue A, they just have to lose the game.

About the results of 25th day, the only other interesting result is Cannes's victory in Rennes. That's a proof that Cannes is in great shape and will be a tough team to deal with for the playoff.

26th day results:

Tourcoing 2/3 Montpellier 25-21 20-25 20-25 25-17 12-15 P2
Tours 3/0 Nice 25-21 25-17 25-17 P2
Ajaccio 0/3 Beauvais 22-25 26-28 18-25 P2
Paris 2/3 Rennes 25-11 22-25 25-23 18-25 09-15 P2
AS Cannes 3/0 Poitiers 25-18 25-19 25-20 P2
Toulouse 3/1 St-Quentin 25-22 20-25 25-15 25-22 P2
Sète 0/3 Nantes Rezé 17-25 18-25 16-25 P2

Final ranking:

1. Tours 66
2. Poitiers 55
3. Sète 49
4. AS Cannes 48
5. Rennes 43
6. Paris 42
7. Nantes Rezé 42
8. Montpellier 41
9. Tourcoing 38
10. Beauvais 34
11. Ajaccio 31
12. Toulouse 29
13. Nice 20
14. St-Quentin 4

1/4 final schedule (best of 3):

April 19th:
Tours vs Montpellier
Poitiers vs Nantes-Rezé
Sète vs Paris
Cannes vs Rennes

April 23rd:
Montpellier vs Tours
Nantes-Rezé vs Poitiers
Paris vs Sète
Rennes vs Cannes

Third game at best ranked team if needed: April 26th.

Comments:

Last day with a lot of "unreliable" results because of players given rest or team trying to pick next opponent and so on.

For example, Paris might have lost the last set to get a 2-3 loss enabling them to play against Sète for next round, and avoid Cannes that looks currently in pretty good shape. Sète (resting Toniutti) might also have lost to Nantes on purpose in an attempt to play against them in next round. (if Paris vs Rennes had not ended in points shared, Nantes would have finished 6th)
Anyway, Poitiers lost another game in Cannes. Of course Poitiers is focusing on French cup 1/4 final next thursday against Tours. But this 3rd defeat in a row (this time with full lineup starting) is not very good for team confidence.
At the same time, Tours honoured Loïc de Kergret with a 3-0 victory over Nice. The Hall was full, and three 2005 IECL winners (Frederic Gibert, Tuomas Sammelvuo and Slobodan Boskan) entered the court holding the trophies won by De Kergret with Tours ( 2 French championship, 4 french Cups, 3 IECL medals: bronze, silver and Gold). Referees also took part, wearing rasta wig.

Last game Alexandar Simeonov had 65% in attack - 13/20 and now he didn't play. The coach is obviously f**with Nice

Quote from raylight

Last game Alexandar Simeonov had 65% in attack - 13/20 and now he didn't play. The coach is obviously f**with Nice

Simeonov was injured, that's why he did not play.

I am taking my words then

I agree with much of what you've said.

I just think that Ajaccio was wise (or lucky?) enough to be in perfect shape right at the start of the season (they reach the Tournoi de la Ligue final against Tours before starting of the championship).
Thus they were able to defeat Rennes and Poitiers (in Poitiers!) for the two first games. Take these 5 points away from Ajaccio, and they would have been much more under pressure, and would have play with less confidence for the whole season ! That's exactly what Nice lacked with Damiao being injured at the beginning. (By the way, last season, Nice also had a great start that helped them until the end)

Also, I don't think that Skrimov would not have played if Esseddyq had not been injured. He had some playtime last season (and was already Paris's X-factor!) so it's pretty sure he would have had his chance in the season. And Webber is not really playing better than Esseddyq would have so I think Paris's final ranking is just logical result considering Tourcoing and Beauvais being disappointing.
Montpellier has also been a bit disappointing to me. I think they had a team to be in the top 5. Since they reached playoff (and are qualified for Cup 1/4 final) they are still alive, but they now have to win the cup (or reach championship final) to get play an European cup next season, which is going to be tough.

Beauvais had a some bad luck of course, but I also think they made a bad move signing Granvorka. His stats in Turkey were indicating that wasn't the player he had been before, and his numbers with Beauvais are an awful confirmation: 26/79 in attack (and a 13.9 % efficiency ), and only 1 ace in 11 games, his reception and blocks being just average.

The LNV / L'Equipe awards, honoring the best players of the season have been published:

MVP: Earvin Ngapeth (Tours)

Super 7:

Setter: Nuno Pinheiro (Poitiers) 88 points
Middle blockers: Petr Konecny (Tours) 112 points - Oliver Kieffer (Poitiers) 61 points
Outside hitters: Earvin N’Gapeth (Tours) 147 points - Todor Skrimov (Paris Volley) 28 points
Opposite: Antonin Rouzier 92 points
Libero: Jénia Grebennikov (Rennes) 95 points

Backup:

Setter : Rafael Redwitz (Tours) 84 points
Middle Blocker: Gérald Hardy-Dessources (Cannes) 32 points
Outside hitter : André Lopes (Poitiers) 25 points
Opposite : Pavel Bartik (Beauvais) 59 points
Libero : Alexis Gonzalez (Tours) 73 points

Coach:Olivier Lecat (Poitiers) 40 points

The main surprise is Skrimov being voted starter as OH, since he's been playing most of the season as opposite. Of course he helped Paris a lot, but his efficiency level has never been really high, and I think that less flashy players (but more efficient) deserve more credit.
Also Rouzier being named best opposite in place of Bartik who scored more points, with a higher efficiency is just a joke. But I'm getting used to see french players given all the credit in these awards.

French cup 1/4 final:

Chaumont 3/2 Tourcoing 17-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-20, 15-12
Beauvais 3/1 Montpellier 25-27, 25-23, 25-23, 25-20
Orange 0/3 Rennes 16-25, 21-25, 19-25
Poitiers 0/3 Tours 19-25, 18-25, 22-25

Huge surprise with Tourcoing's defeat in Chaumont. Tourcoing's season finish the worst possible way.
Tours completely dominated Poitiers. Strong serve, amazing spiking efficiency (more than 60% for the whole team, almost twice the average team efficiency in championship this season !), and two kill blocks from Petr Konecny to close the last set.
Beauvais defeated Montpellier, and now has a good chance to advance in final to save their season.

The final 4 will be played this week-end in Paris. The 1/2 final will be:
Chaumont vs Beauvais
Rennes vs Tours

Love story between Tours Volley Ball and French cup continues.

After being the first final reached by the club (in 1999 and 2000 against Paris Volley) and allowing it to play IECL, after being the first Trophy won by the club (season 2002/03), Tours won a record 6th French cup (the third in a row) yesterday against Beauvais. That was the 8th time Tours reached the final in the past 12 seasons, and the 6th time in the past 8 season that Tours won the trophy.

Of course, this victory allows Tours to play an other IECL next season.

At the end of the game, former French NT member, Frantz Granvorka officially announced he was retiring from volley-ball.
Granvorka was best server of 1997 European Championship, 2002 World Championship and 2006 Italian Championship. He was also named best foreign player of Italy in 2000.
Granvorka played 282 games with French NT, helping the team to win the bronze at 2002 World Championship, and silver at 2003 European Championship and 2006 World League.
With clubs, he won various including French championship and cups with Paris, Cup in Turkey (with Ziraat Bankasi) and Greece (with Iraklis) , and Supercup in Italy (with Cuneo).
He was also part of Piacenza Team that reached Italian Championship and IECL final in 2008.

Frantz Granvorka is the son of Séverin who was considered the best Frenc player in 1970's and played 220 games for French NT. He is also the brother of Swiss NT player Inès Granvorka.

1/2 final Results:

Chaumont 1/3 Beauvais 25-21 17-25 17-25 18-25 P2 Rennes 1/3 Tours 22-25 25-23 22-25 14-25 P2

Final Result:

Beauvais 0/3 Tours 23-25 20-25 26-28 P2