Long-distance duel for the championship

Long-distance duel for the championship

Four days before the end of the season, the drama in the title fight of the second volleyball league sud continues to grow. In the long-distance duel between top-ranked heitec volleys eltmann (20 games, 17 wins, 50 points) and their closest rivals TSV grafing (19, 17, 48), both teams have to play away from home. The reigning champions grafing already guest on saturday at the unpredictable table fourth TG russelsheim II. One day later, the eltmanners play the seventh-placed alpenvolleys haching II at 4 p.M.

Alpine volleys haching II – heitec volleys eltmann

The champion will be the one who has the most payers in the final tally. In case of a tie, the number of victories decides. For this reason, the heitec volleys can no longer win the title by their own efforts. Even if they win all the games with the highest number of points of three, they will still have to rely on support from upper bavaria: grafing will have to lose at least once more.

Meanwhile, eltmann’s manager rolf werner is also feeling the special tingling sensation: "the tension is tangible. Everywhere I go, people talk to me about this exciting constellation – on the street, at work, at the baker’s or butcher’s shop. The volleyball fans are electrified. It’s good for our sport when we’re on speaking terms." For him, however, it is the facts that count first and foremost: "the season has already been a great success for us. We already leaned far out of the window last summer and announced our ambitions for the championship and promotion. So far, we have been able to meet these ambitious targets. I’m happy that we’re definitely assured of a place in the top three in the table. So we can move up to the first league without a possible wildcard, which costs a lot of money. That makes us proud."

All eyes on russelsheim

Werner makes no bones about the fact that all the people of eltmann will be giving the second russelsheim team all the thumbs they can muster on saturday. "That’s sport. But this does not detract from the fairness." The hopes of the team from lower franconia are not completely out of the air. Because russelsheim II is something like the fear opponent of the grafinger. Hesse was the only team in the league to win 3:2 at barenhohle east of munich on matchday eight. Grafing suffered its second defeat, 3-2, in eltmann at the end of january this year.

Like werner, head coach marco donat and the entire team will be cheering on the live ticker of the volleyball bundesliga with the russelsheimers on saturday. Nevertheless, they want to be rustet, should grafing patzen. That’s why another training session is scheduled for saturday morning, during which tactical variations in particular are to be refined.

"Burning for the heibe phase"

Eltmann wants to leave nothing to chance and travel to unterhaching optimally prepared. After all, everyone still remembers the first leg, when the team from eltmann won 3:2 in a tiebreak after being down 0:2. Eltmann’s coach would gladly do without this roller-coaster ride of emotions in the rematch: "but that doesn’t mean we’re traveling to the bavarian derby with mixed feelings. We are looking forward to the tough game. That’s what you live for as an athlete. We are eager for the hectic phase of the season and reflect on the positive findings. We fought our way back. That must give us confidence. The important thing is to keep the season going and deliver a good performance in haching."

Heitec volleys eltmann: couchman, engel, peta, richter, kolbe, schmitt, kruger, kellermann, werner, stoyanov, wacek, bibrack, strobel