Panathinaikos overcame its European exclusion by asserting itself against Aris with relative ease inside Agios Thomas.

The greens were excellent against the team that forced them to their only defeat in the championship so far and it was only in the second set that Aris was able to justify his good course this year and the derby character of the match.

In the first set, Panathinaikos’ service caused a lot of problems for Aris, who quickly lost touch with the score. Stepanenko made the switch at 9-7, Papafotiou served and left at 16-7. The visitors temporarily reduced to 16-11 with continued errors from PAO, but the greens responded quickly to 21-11 and the easy 1-0.

The picture of the second set is completely different as Aris worked much better on the first ball and both teams were close until 15-15 which became 18-15 (again with Papafotiou in service). Aris reduced with a match against Mercado (19-18) and equalized 21-21 (with a point from…defending by Evans), for PAO to get +2 again (23-21 with an out by Mercado) . At 23-22, Aris had a chance to draw, but Kioutsiouki made a wrong pass and at 24-23, Hatziefstratiadou ended the set.

The Greens went 8-4 early in the third set, Aris reduced to 8-7 (Ass Evans), but PAO’s response came again from the service line.

At Hatziefstratiadou, the 9-8 became a 15-8 this time, which counts for the final there as Aris couldn’t come back (it was 21-10).

Panathinaikos – Aris 3-0

The sentences: 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-15) in 75′

* Panathinaikos’ points come from opponents’ 6 aces, 45 attacks, 7 blocks and 17 mistakes and Aris from opponents’ 2 aces, 33 attacks, 3 blocks and 14 mistakes.

PANATHINAIKOS AO (Apostolos Oikonomou): Chatziefstratiadou 10 (6/12 ff., 2 aces, 2 blocks), Cross 14 (11/15 ff., 3 blocks), Stepanenko 3 (3/17 ff.), Grotesha 9 (8/17 ff., 1 ace , 92% mins – 58% excellent), Papafotiou 6 (3/4ff, 2 aces, 1 block), Khantava 13 (13/28ff, 58% mins – 38% excellent) / Roga (l, 75% – 38% excellent), Konstantinou, Tsitsigianni 3 (1/3ff., 1 ace, 1 block).

ARIS (Yiannis Tsairelis): Kioutsiouki 3 (1/2 run, 1 ace, 1 block), Lappa, Mercado 14 (13/39 run, 1 block), Drakoulidou 1 (1/3 run), Swan 6 (5/15 run, 1 block, 36 % sub – 9% excellent), Evans 13 (12/28 ff., 1 ace, 50% sub – 42% excellent) / Kourtidou (l, 20% sub – 17% excellent), Kampouri (l, 10% jap. – 10% excellent), Tani, Mylona 1 (1/2 ff.), Gaitanidou.