France, Round 12: played all the last matches of 2018!

2 min read

23 December 2018 Danijel90

After the victory of Cannes in four sets on Sete’s field, round 12 of French Ligue A ended, and the last matches of 2018 were played. What happened? Tours won in four sets against Nice, who however fought hard, and I think they deserved at least one point, while Poitiers and Chaumont won against Toulouse and Tourcoing respectively with the same result. A surprise victory in straight sets of Montpellier, away against Ajaccio, and the curtain is closed with Nantes’s home defeat against the leaders Rennes.
So, great battle today in Tours, where Nice has shown not to deserve the ninth place in the standings. The match was very balanced, and as I have already written, the result deceives, because the guests deserved to back at home at least with one point. The 26 points of Robin Overbeeke, the best scorer of the match and the 21 of Galabov were not enough for Nice, who was however defeated in four sets. On the winning side, Wounembaina had a good performance with 23 points (including 5 aces!) and 58% in attack, while his teammate Egleskalns added 18.
It was a battle also in Poitiers, and this is another 3:1 that deceives, because the match was very balanced here too. El Graoui and Schops led their team to victory, scoring 20 and 16 points, while Koelewijn, despite a not excellent performance in attack, has made 4 winning walls.
At Toulouse Jorna was the best scorer with 19 points, followed by Martinez (15) and Demyanenko who scored 13 points and 71% attack.
Victory in four sets also for Chaumont. Nothing to do for Tourcoing, despite the good performance of his captain Jimenez, author of 20 points. At Chaumont, Patak and Ben Tara scored 13 points each.
Montpellier instead won on the field of Ajaccio in straight sets. With the exception of the third set, the hosts have nevertheless fought, even if Montpellier deserved the victory, playing better in the decisive moments of the game. Best scorer of the match is Jean Patry, author of 18 points including 4 winning blocks and one ace.
Easy victory for the leaders Rennes on the field of Nantes: after taking the measures in the first set, won by the hosts 25-23, they had no difficulty in winning the next sets. The 20 points of Michalovic, best scorer of the match (good match for the slovak opposite) were not enough. Great block performance of Rennes: 14 winning blocks in total (6 of Tavares), against 3 of Nantes.