On Saturday evening there was hardly any time to catch your breath in the sea of gossip in the Schmelinghalle. The field was prepared for the BR Volleys and they accepted the invitation to win at home after their 2-0 lead in the play-off final series for the German volleyball championship. In front of 8535 spectators, the Berliners rushed to their 13th national championship title in front of their own audience in a sold-out hall, after a 3:1 (25:18, 25;18, 16:25, 27:25) against the bravely defending VfB Friedrichshafen.
Ruben Schott, greeted by the announcer before the game as “god of service”, had already said before the game that there was no need to think long about the second game in the series, because “We just want to continue like this. Mentally, I see us well prepared.”
From the point of view of the team from Lake Constance, the body language of the VfB Friedrichshafen players did not bode well at first. Coach Mark Lebedev took a timeout early on, the volleys were already leading 10:5. After that, the guests tried again and again to play the serves on Timothée Carle, but the Berliner remained stable in the assumption – a weak point in the volley game could not be identified. Berlin’s service god missed the first set ball, but a short time later the volleys had easily won the first set 25:18.
The second round started with four great serves from Johannes Tille and four points in a row for the volleys. Due to the injury situation, VfB couldn’t make as many changes as the Berliners, so the options for the former volleyball coach Lebedev were limited, and his face hardly wanted to brighten. When the score was 12:19, he didn’t like a botched acceptance after serve from Carle from Berlin, he yelled at his players.
13
It was the 13th national championship title for the team from Berlin.
The coach’s emotional outburst didn’t help Friedrichshafen, the Berliners also scurried through the second set, sometimes with six points in a row (to 22:13) and won it like the first with 25:18.
In the third set, the volleys suddenly dropped
In his last game for the volleys, Berlin’s coach Cédric Énard then saw a somewhat bumpy third set from his team, who didn’t seem to be quite there, especially when accepting, and lost 16:25.
So now it was time for a little drama. In the fourth set, the mood on the hall floor really boiled up, the players came together at the net for a hearty conversation, Andre Brown took on the Berlin libero Satoshi Tsuiki and at the end of the clashes with yellow and red cards was put out and disappeared in frustration in the catacombs. Enard, otherwise a rather calm disposition, also saw yellow.
Because after the lost third round, the Berliners, in which Ruben Schott and Anton Brehme had enormous attacking odds, made everything perfect in a hard-fought fourth set after a long deficit, equalized at 24:24 and 25:25 – and won with the 27th place :25 also their last and most important home game of the season.
