The French Volleyball Championship playoffs began last Friday (9/4). The quarter-finals will be a best-of-five match, with three wins to advance to the semi-finals. And none the less in this opening round were Brazilian players on the pitch, some more prominent and others starting at a disadvantage.

The ones who sweat the most to win are Tours led by coach Marcelo Fronckowiak. The team reached the knockout stages as one of the main favorites for the title, as it was the best campaign in the previous phase. Playing at home, against Nice (8th), Tours were in a difficult situation after leading in the first set (27-25), but bounced back in the next (20-25 and 18-25). Fronckowiak made some changes and the team responded well, especially with the inclusion of naturalized Brazilian from Qatar, Geraldo Goiano. Tours were looking for comebacks in the fourth and fifth sets (25-22 and 15-7) and secured their first win of the series. Palonsky Argentina is the team’s top scorer with 15 points. Goiano was also an important player coming from the third set, collaborating with 10 attack points (67%). Central Aracaju left the field in the third set with just one attack point. Same score as his opponent Abouba, who made several passes on the field, received two balls and put one on the ground. The game’s top scorer was Argentina’s Bruno Lima, from Nice, with 19 hits.

On the same side of the bracket, Narbonne beat Arago de Sete in 3 sets to 1:25-18, 25-20, 20-25 and 27-25. In contrast Rafael Araújo is the game’s big name with 28 points: 25 strikes (60% success), two blocks and one more ace. Brazilian pointer Allan Veríssimo, who started the second set, had six points. On the losing side, Canada’s Ryan Sclater was in the spotlight, with 26 strokes. If Tours and Narbonne cement their status as favorites in the series, they will face each other in the semifinals.

On the other side of France’s 21/22 bracket, playing away from home, Tourcoing is no match for a packed Chaumont. Team Vaccari, Rammé and Gabriel Bertolini regressed by 3 sets to 1, with partials: 25-22, 20-25, 25-17 and 25-18. Pointer Vaccari is the team’s top scorer with 12 hits: nine strikes (50% success), one block and two aces. Opponent Julien Winkelmuller also scored 12. For Chaumont, Cubans Jaime Herreira and Roamy Alonso were the main highlights with 14 points apiece. In other matches in the same bracket, Montpellier took the lead by beating Paris 3-1 (25-16, 25-19, 19-25 and 25-23). The main scorer of the confrontation was France against Théo Faure, with 19 points.

By Robson Leal, in collaboration with Web Vlei