“A final is always a final,” Riccardo Boieri had previously said encouragingly. The coach of SC Potsdam wanted to wipe away all statistical signs before his volleyball women’s cup final against Allianz MTV Stuttgart: “Reduce your own mistakes,” was his goal: “Then we can keep up with Stuttgart.”
He should be mistaken. His counterpart Konstantin Bitter, on the other hand, had made no move to make his team smaller than necessary: “We see ourselves as favorites,” explained Bitter, trusting in the strengths of his experienced players. “You know what to do.” He also gave a pragmatic instruction: “We try not to do too much.” It should be enough. Relaxed. Stuttgart won the final 3-0, and Bitter was overjoyed and proud: “Our quality was very high.”
Harmless Potsdam women
The two teams had already faced each other five times this season, and the South Germans won four times – including in the most important games between the two parties so far, in the round of 16 of the Champions League – and each time by a clear 3-0. Stuttgart had previously won the cup four times and has now won the cup for the fifth time, as well as being German champions three times.
On the other hand, Potsdam, the eternal second, does not yet have a title on its letterhead – apart from the Supercup 2022. In the current final it quickly became clear that the statistics have their counterpart on the field. Skillfully led by setter Britt Bongaerts and mostly perfectly implemented by diagonal attacker Krystal Rivers or outside attacker Jolien Knollema, Stuttgart skilfully exploited its superiority from the start and clearly won the first set 25:14. In the second it was a little closer, but not really close: 25:19. And the third set also brought no surprise, on the contrary: 25:15.
Even those who didn’t know the result could tell from the players’ body language how the game was going: the Potsdam women sagged their shoulders early on, their attacking efforts turned out to be harmless, and the hoped-for tension of a close final game was never fulfilled. The balance of power in the stands also spoke for Stuttgart.
Hit: Stuttgart’s Krystal Rivers (left) against Suvi Kokkonen: Image: dpa
The blue wall was much more densely packed with around a thousand Swabian supporters than the Potsdam fan block. And at the end they were able to loudly celebrate their players, who had rushed into the corner to cheer: “Oh, how beautiful that is.”
On volleyball finals day, it is a good tradition that the women’s and men’s finals are played one after the other in the same hall, which is filled with supporters of all four teams involved. The multifunctional hall in Mannheim has earned a good reputation as the “Wembley of volleyball”, even if it has a profane name: the “SAP Arena” has been the dream destination of all German volleyball players since 2016 and always attracts a good 10,000 spectators for this occasion full to the brim.
Dominance demonstrated
The game balance on Sunday showed Krystal Rivers as the decisive figure on the field. The dynamic attacker could never be stopped by Potsdam’s blocking efforts. In the end, 25 of the cup winners’ 66 attack points were on their scoreboard. Rivers’ attack efficiency was an incredible 73 percent.
“It wasn’t just her,” Bitter wanted the praise to be distributed to everyone. It was hard to see that Bundesliga leaders Stuttgart had to complete an exhausting journey during the week and had to cope with disappointment. In the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the Blues lost 3-1 to Turkish top club Fenerbahce Istanbul after a 3-2 first leg win and were eliminated. At least at the national level they have now proven their dominance.
Achim Dreis Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 Achim Dreis Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 Achim Dreis, Wiesbaden Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
With the cup success, Bitter won his first title as sole head coach. The 34-year-old had already smoothly taken over the difficult successor to successful coach Tore Aleksandersen in the previous season, who died of cancer in December at the age of just 55. “He will always be with us,” said Bitter, remembering the man who drove the development of the Stuttgart volleyball team like no other: “He shaped us, he is part of us.”
