Nice Volley-Ball had an appointment with its first playoff match tonight in Tours. Faced with one of the title contenders, the NVB was defeated in three sets.
This Friday night marked the entry of NVB players for their first playoff round. As a reminder, the first team to three victories qualifies for the semi-finals of this 2024/2025 Marmara Spike League edition.
Before the match, the record of confrontations between the two teams was largely in favor of Tours. With 23 consecutive victories against Nice, Tours was a clear favorite in this encounter.
Yet the start of the match was balanced. Nice managed to stay in touch until a series of offensive and service errors. The gap increased to +4 (15-11) thanks to the two aces of TVB, Ryan Sclater and Alexandre Strehlau. The two players alone scored 14 points in the first set. On the other side, Simon Hirsch honored his position as the best scorer of the regular season despite some errors that were costly to Nice. The team from Nice dropped the first set (25-19).
Logic respected in a close match
At the start of the second set, Nice played the game but made mistakes. Merrick Mchenry took control and allowed Nice to equalize the score (5-5). Both teams committed errors, giving points to each other. Tours was ahead, but Simon Hirsch managed to seize his attacking opportunities.
The set was tight, and neither team managed to take a substantial lead. At (20-19), Nice made two consecutive errors. Brice Donat called a timeout to rally his team and find a solution to regain the upper hand. Nice was more precise, but Tours did not weaken. Ryan Sclater and Alexandre Strehlau finished the job for TVB (25-21) despite Rodney Ah-Kong’s defensive efforts at the net.
At the beginning of the third set, the local attacks were sharper. Tours thought they had quickly broken away (3-0), but Nice fought back with attacks from Merrick Mchenry and Nooa Marttila. The team from Nice was not resigned despite trailing by two sets. Tours wanted to take control but made too many service errors. Ardo Kreek succeeded with his first block of the match, with Nice leveling (7-7).
Both teams traded points like in the second set, but it was Tours that made the difference. First with a block from Alexandre Strehlau, followed by an attack and then a second block from Leandro Nascimento Dos Santos. The break was made. Brice Donat called another timeout but without success. Nice no longer scored and depended on the Tourangeaux errors, who nonetheless pulled away (18-13). Leandro Nascimento Dos Santos made another block and put Tours out of reach (20-14).
The Nice Volley-Ball finally lost in three sets (25-21/25-21/25-21) despite a final burst at the end of the match with beautiful moves from Lars Migge, Ardo Kreek, and the inevitable Simon Hirsch (11 points) who finished as the third top scorer of the match.
Tours now leads one to zero in the series, but nothing is lost yet. The second match is scheduled for this Sunday, April 6 once again away. The kickoff is at 6 p.m.