The season could stop this Friday, May 2 for the Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne in the event of a defeat in Poitiers, during the “Play-off” semi-final. It is therefore a match to quit or double that the cevébis will compete: an issue that this time will have to be assumed.
The time has come for the Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne to show that all the ambitions placed in this young team at the start of the season will not remain in vain. It is only “polichinelle secret” to reveal that this group will dislocate in large part in the offseason. A young collective who will not therefore have the opportunity, in its current form, to know other joys during the coming season.
Dominated in the first leg in Palestra (1-3) a week ago, during the semi-final go to the “play-off”, the cevés have indeed other choices than to return the same to the pictavians, this Friday, May 2, if they want to try to seize a trophy this season. In the event of a defeat, the curtain would fall definitively on the current exercise and the Chaumontais club would finish a new season without the slightest title, which he has been “hunting” for three years now and the 2022 French Cup.
On the Vienne side, the Haut-Marnaise formation will therefore have to prove that it has grown and learned from the lessons given to it throughout the current exercise. Until now, this young workforce has suggested major promises, but has always collapsed in fateful moments. Still too tender at the start of the season, he missed his hen release in the Champions League by two defeats outside against opponents within his reach (Lüneburg and Sofia). A few months later, a little more sure of his fact, he nevertheless missed his semi-final of the Coupe de France, struck down without much resistance in Montpellier. Then, at the end of the first phase of the championship, he abandoned his place as a leader during the penultimate day, depriving him of a probable direct ticket for the Champions League.
So many failed meetings that the CVB 52 can still make you forget by an end of the season in apotheosis.
A bad start
Unfortunately, the story seemed to be repeated, last Friday, when after leaving a set to zero against Poitiers, then spoiled a conclusion ball in the second, the team again “liquefied” in the second part of the meeting.
There is no question here of questioning the sporting qualities of a group which demonstrated, throughout the season, its ability to take the measure of most of its opponents in the league, to finish co-lead in the ranking. But it is also logical, given the facts recalled above, to doubt the mental solidity of a workforce which struggles to combine efficiency with stake.
“We did not lose the war,” quickly meant the cevés from the end of the lost semi-final. “We will overthrow Poitiers at home and we will come back to Palestra,” wanted to convince himself Joseph Worsley and his teammates.
After all, the CVB 52 has already managed such a feat in the regular season, in a duel which already felt the suffering in Vienne last December. For the last appearance of Earvin NgaPeth in the Lawson-Body room, she had refueled and had only seen the damage against Chaumontais who had dominated the game of the head and shoulders (three sets victory).
But if Silvano Prandi’s men are likely to find this same atmosphere of fire, it will therefore be accompanied by a completely different issue this time, faced with a very different formation of Poitiers. This is where the Chaumontais will have to prove that if the Poitevin face has changed, they too have evolved in the head!
Laurent Génin
l.genin@jhm/fr
The opponent
“We haven’t won anything yet!” »»
By dominating the Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne during the first leg semi-final (1-3) in Palestra, last week, Poitiers put itself in the best conditions for the qualification in the final of the French championship. However, the former Cévébiste, Franco Massimino, is still very cautious on the eve of receiving the CVB 52 for the return match.
JHMQUOTIDI: Do you go with a real advantage in this return semi-final?
Franco Massimino (Libéro de Poitiers): “We got a great victory last week in Palestra, but we haven’t won anything yet! Chaumont is a very strong team, one of the best in the championship, and thinking that we made the hardest in Haute-Marne would be a huge mistake. This is not how that we will have to approach the duel with us. »»
JHMQUotidian: What were the great PEPTEVINS satisfaction in the first leg?
F. M. : “We played really well once the first set passed. At the start of the match, we were not in place, like our twelve direct faults committed: we cannot win the Channel under these conditions. We managed to rectify the shot then, with a real good performance in the last two sets at all levels. »»
JHMquotidian: How do you explain the renewal of your team in these “play-offs”?
F. M. : “We lived a really difficult season. A slightly “extraordinary” start to competition with the presence of Earvin (NgaPeth), then his departure and that of our “pointed” (Dusan Nikolic) in December completely redistributed the cards. We went through really difficult moments. We ate our “black bread” and I think that today, the whole group has learned from these delicate moments. The “play-offs” were discussed as a brand new championship and we made the situation tip over in our favor. We play, now,
completely released. »»
JHMquotidian: What does the arrival of Nik Mujanovic bring you?
F. M. : “He is first of all a great player!” At only 20 years old, he already shows enormous potential. But beyond his contribution on the sporting and accounting level, it is above all his attitude which allowed this rapid adaptation. He did not arrive with us as a “Savior”, but with great humility. He melted into the mold and immediately put himself at the service of the collective. He worked to be competitive as quickly as possible. The misfortune of some (injury of Bozidar Vucicevic) often making the happiness of others, he endorsed all the responsibility which fell to him with determination. He’s a great teammate! »»
JHMquotidian: What will be the key to the return match?
F. M. : “At first: especially do not believe that qualification is acquired. We are going to evolve in a full-to-crack room, which was already closed two days before the semi-final. The atmosphere will be fantastic.
It is up to us to feed on this, to keep our humility, our courage and our desire. It will be necessary to play after point, without projecting yourself too quickly towards the future. And if we never manage to confirm our good result of going, well we will come back to Palestra on Monday, with the same determination. »»
Interview by LG
The first leg of “play-off”
A spoiled opportunity
Poitiers Bat Chaumont 3 sets at 1 (21-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-18)
In a copiously garnished Palestra room, the Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne perfectly begins its semi-final, facing a Poitiers which struggles to find its bearings at the start of the match. Faced with perfectly in place cevity, especially on a defensive level in “block/defense”, visitors cannot prevent the scoring from swelling fairly quickly in favor of their hosts. Thomas Pujol is trying to put a little “pep” in his own game thanks to his quality of service, but the CVB 52 is already well rooted in a first set that he concludes
Logically: 25-21 in 27 ′.
But Pujol’s “ACE” at the end of the round is much more than a simple warning for the Haut-Marnais who, from the start of the second act, must manage a completely different scenario. The pictavians are becoming more and more insistent in the service and their offensive “joker”, Nik Mujanovic, begins to take their ease in the net. The Chaumontais resist and then return the situation in their favor in the “Money Time”, but the spoiled opportunity on their first set ball is paid cash later, on an “ACE” by Simon Magnin: 24-26 in 30 ′.
A spring broke out in the local collective and Poitiers will not be shy to take advantage of it. If we except the return to the shape of a stone toledo, the third set draws a one -way scenario for visitors:
17-25 in 25 ′.
The Cévébistes no longer have the choice if they want to preserve the advantage of the field, but constantly run after the scoring in the fourth round. Faced with Poitevins with full confidence, the last series of points conceded by the CVB 52 is fatal to it (10-12, then 10-17). The men of Silvano Prandi will no longer return: 18-25 in 27 ′.
Teams
Alterna Stadium Poitevin VB
2
Entraineer : Dan Lewis.
Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne
1. The Worsley (cap.), 2. Durad (great.), 3. Holdaway, 4. Henno, 5. The Lefaivre, 7. Suihkon, 8. Diop, 9. Toledo, 10. The Lietzke, 15. Parest, 16. Pastor, 17. Parest, 17. Pars, 17. Pars, 17. Pars, 19. Pars, 19. Parest.
Entraineneur : Silvano Prandi.
The program
Semi-final go to “play-off”
CVB 52 – Poitiers 1-3 (25-21, 24-26, 17-25, 18-25)
Montpellier – Tours 0-3 (24-26, 22-25, 23-25)
Semi-final return of “play-off”
Friday May 2 (8 p.m.)
Poitiers – CVB 52
Tours – Montpellier
*Supporting semi-final if necessary on Monday, May 5 in the order of the semi-final to go.
