Lausanne, Switzerland, November 6, 2016 - The 2016 FIVB Club World Champions Sada Cruzeiro of Contagem continue on their winning ways, succesfully opening their defence of the Brazil Superleague title after claiming their third world title in Betim a fortnight ago and then going on to win the Supercup over Brasil Kirin.
In their first game for the 2016-17 Superleague, Club World Championship best opposite Evandro Guerra scored 17 points for Sada Cruzeiro, as the defending champions overhwelmed Juiz de Fora 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-17) away.
"They started well the first two sets and the beginning of the third was hard, but we got an important result here in Juiz de Fora," said Evandro after the game in which he was named MVP. "Some things did go wrong, but we will work harder to improve."
Zenit unstoppableOver in Russia, meanwhile, the runners-up of Betim, Zenit Kazan, continued their winning streak in the domestic Superleague with a convincing 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-20) win in Novosibirsk over Lokomotiv.
Maksim Mikhailov scored 19 points and USA's Matt Anderson added another 13 as the defending champions extended their win-lose record to 6-0 in the league.
Highlights of the Lokootiv Novosibirsk v Zenit Kazan game of the Russian Superleague.
Trentino yet to falterBetim bronze medallists and record four-time world champions Trentino Diatec had to rally from 22-24 down and then survived another set point at 24-25 before coming back to take the first set on Sunday from Revivre Milan in the Italian UnipolSai A1 League. Led by the game's MVP Tine Urnaut of Slovenia, Trentino then easily went on to take the game 3-0 (29-27, 25-19, 25-19).
Trentino remain undefeated in seven matches.
Personal Bolivar in ACLAV Cup semisAnd in Argentina Personal Bolivar, who lost to Trentino for the bronze two weeks ago in Betim, stormed through to the semifinals of the Association of Clubs Volleyball League of Argentina (ACLAV by its Spanish-language acronym) Cup. Despite going down in five to Alianza Jesus Maria 3-2 (25-20, 12-25, 17-25, 25-22, 17-15), Bolivar beat Untref 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-21) and PSM Voley 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-17).
Australia's Thomas Edgar, top scorer of the Club World Championship, and Pablo Crer, best middle blocker in Betim, bagged 14 points each for Bolivar in their loss against Alianza Jesus Maria. Bulgaria's Todor Aleksiev was top scorer against PSM (12) and Untref (15).
Pablo Crer of Personal Bolivar attacks before the block of PSM's Guido Romanutti in the ACLAV Cup.Argentina's second entrant in Betim, UPCN San Juan, crashed out of the ACLAV Cup, after going down twice with absolutely identical scores to Gigantes del Sur 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-22) and to Obras UDAP Voley also 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-22). This was despite the best efforts of Bulgaria's Nikolay Uchikov, who top-scored for UPCN in both matches, with 13 and 15 points respectively.
The ACLAV Cup semifinals are set for just before Christmas, with Personal Bolivar meeting Lomas Voley and Obras UDAP taking on Alianza Jesus Maria. Meanwhile, the teams will be competing in the Argentina League, which begins next week.