Milonas celebrates qualifying for the CEV Cup playoffs for the first time in its history. The New Smyrna team lost 3-2 sets, but was able to qualify after the two sets it secured, having won 3-1 sets in its first game in Germany.

The German team achieved an insignificant victory, but was ahead in the 5th set with Froixos Kotsakis and Dimitris Mouchlias. In the next phase, Milos will face France’s Nantes on January 11, 2024 with their first game at Kroisos Persis.

Both after the end of the 3rd set, when the score was 2-1, and after the end of the game, Sakis Psarras’ players celebrated their qualification.

Nea Smyrni’s team won the first set 25:20, paving the way for qualification. But he lost the second set 25:23 despite leading 14:9. With the score at 21-20, he received 4 consecutive aces from Gevert and the score was 20-24. Milonas lost with Her 23:24 due to an attack by Froixos Kotsakis, Duren managed 23:25 and equalized the set at 1:1.

There was a great fight in the third set that turned out to be decisive. Milonas even led 21-16, but here too the German team, with a risk on serve and the excellent Kotsakis, managed to stay in the game and equalize 24-24 thanks to an ace from Kotsakis. Sakis Psarras took a timeout and tried to calm the players down. As it turned out, they needed good receptions. Yordanov made it 25-24 and Molina’s ace closed the set at 26-24 amid wild celebrations of qualification – redemption.

From then on, Psarras, who had secured qualification, threw all the new players in the squad into the game in order to achieve the honorary victory. They fought back but lost the 4th set 25-16, while the details were decided in the tiebreak.

In fact, Milonas also led there with 4:0 and 9:6, but this time Korenbleck and the second Greek in the German team, Dimitris Mouchlias, did the damage. With Korenbleck’s serve and Muchlia’s finish, the German team turned 11:9 into 11:14 with a 5-0 run. Milonas broke against Nanopoulos but lost his serve and the match ended 13-15.

Milos – Düren 2-3

The sentences: 25-20, 23-25, 26-24, 16-25, 13-15 in 127′

*Milon’s points came from 11 aces, 45 attacks (38% efficiency), 10 blocks and 37 opponent errors (29 misses) and Duren’s points came from 13 aces, 40 attacks (40% efficiency), 9 blocks and 47 opponent errors.

AONS MILON (Sakis Psarras): Charalambidis 4 (2/5 Ref., 2 Blocks), Bassis 9 (3/5 Ref., 4 Aces, 2 Blocks), Yordanov 16 (15/31 Ref., 1 Block), Molina 10 (6/17 Ref. , 4 aces, 56% under – 25% excellent), Polouyan 9 (7/20 ff., 1 ace, 1 block, 47% under – 29% excellent), hand 3 (2 aces, 1 block) / Chandrinos (l , 67% sub. – 33% excellent), Sosounis (l, 45% sub. – 45% excellent), Theodosis 1 (1/4 s.), Mandelidis, Sosouridis 2 (2 blocks), Kouvaras 1 (1/3 ff.), Nanopoulos 8 (7/15 ff., 1 block, 50% sub. – 40% excellent), Kontostathis 3 (3/12 ff.).

DUREN (salt eye): Van De Edt 1 (1/3 ff.), Kotsakis 11 (8/19 ff., 3 aces, 70% sub. – 39% excellent), Ernastovic 4 (4/19 ff., 57% sub. – 48% excellent), Andrei 7 (3/6 ref., 4 blocks), Gevert 9 (3/13 ref., 6 aces), Meyer / Noce (l, 29% sub. – 19% excellent), Mouchlias 13 (12/ 20 ref., 1 block), Spoulak 6 (2/8 ref., 3 aces, 1 block), Gavlas 4 (2/2 ref., 2 blocks), Korenbleck 5 (3/4 ref., 1 ace, 1 Block), Burnsman 2 (2/5 eff., 30% sub. – 20% excellent).