Eczacıbaşı VitrA won the five-set clash against their İstanbul rival Fenerbahçe Opet in front of 4,500 volleyball fans. Both teams showed how eager they were to begin their #CLVolleyW journey with a win, but despite playing two weeks ago struggled in both block and defence.

The first set was s thrilling one, with experienced spiker Natalia Zilio Pereira (5 pts) and Fenerbahçe Opet opposite player Melissa Vargas (6 pts) dominating in the attack. In the second set, Fenerbahçe Opet striked back led by captain Eda Erdem Dündar and Brankica Mihajlovic, yet they couldn’t maintain their lead. Eczacıbaşı VitrA middle blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer was vital in block and attack as her team stole the second set to 18 points.

A run of Tijana Boskovic’s jump serves helped Eczacıbaşı VitrA to a lead at the beginning of the third set, before Fenerbahçe Opet fought back strongly with some clever play by Kelsey Robinson’s securing the set 25-23. In the fourth set, Fenerbahçe Opet kept control of the game and despite nearly throwing it away from 24-19 up took the game to the tie-break.

The decider set went on point-by-point until the Oranges and Whites led the game by 8-5 at the side switch. Once again, Tijana Boskovic was on the stage carrying her team to a 15-9 win in the first set and through this result, Tigers collected their first #CLVolleyW win of the season.

Natalia Pereira was selected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match, she was also the top scorer with 26 points and came out favourite in the Twitter vote.