With a five set battle over Diatec Trentino, Tours VB took home their first European title in 12 years, while Fakel Novy Urnegoy brought home gold in the Challenge Cup over Chaumont VB 52 in four.
The two championships come just ahead of the Champions League Final Four, which will take place on April 29-30 in Rome.
Tours VB def. Diatec Trentino
After falling to Trentino earlier in the week, Tours made a comeback in the second meet up 3-1, (31-29, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23) to force a golden set.
A golden set is necessary when the two teams have an equal amount of points, kind of like a tiebreaker match in tennis. However, the difference here is that the match is played after the two teams have faced each other twice, to determine who advances/wins. The golden set is played to 15 points, much like a fifth or third set in indoor and beach, respectively.
In the golden set, Tours went up quickly 11-7, then 12-10. Trentino fought to tie the set up at 12 all. Tours made the final push in the match going on a 3-1 run to take the CEV Cup title.
This is the second overall European title for Tours, who last won the Champions League in 2005.
In the title match, David Lonecny, who will be leaving Tours after nine years of play, scored 27 points in the win with five being aces. Tours serving caused a huge problem for Trentino, as the French squad was able to serve up 14 aces. Lonecny was named the MVP of the match. Levi Alves Cabral added another 17 points for Tours, while Filippo Lanza and Jan Stokr each scored 17 points for Trentino.
Fakel Novy Urengoy def. Chaumont VB 52
Fakel claimed the 2017 Challenge Cup over Chaumont in a four set match, 3-1, (21-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-18) in a repeat of the teams earlier match this week.
Dmitri Volkov and Egor Kliuka each put down 13 points for Fakel to help the team to their second trophy in the European third-tier competition since 2007.
Stephen Boyer scored 16 points for Chaumont, as the top scorer of the match.
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