Hypo Tirol won the opening game of the final series in the Austrian Volley League Men (AVL) against TSV Hartberg. The defending champion won 3-2 (25:18, 25:20, 17:25, 19:25, 15:7) in a five-set thriller in Innsbruck on Wednesday and moved to 1st place in the “best of seven” series :0.
The second game takes place on Sunday (8:20 p.m., live on ORF Sport +) in Eastern Styria. The Tyroleans thus took the first step towards their twelfth championship title against the newcomers to the final.
GEPA/Daniel Schoenherr
Hypo captain Niklas Kronthaler was not entirely satisfied after losing the 2-0 lead. “We just have to play the game from start to finish. We completely fell asleep in the third set. This can’t happen to us again in Hartberg,” said the 29-year-old on ORF.
Hartberg makes up for a 0-2 deficit
Coach Stefan Chrtiansky’s Tyroleans, who have only suffered one defeat in the current AVL season, quickly gained a comfortable lead (5:1) thanks to strong blocks and were never in danger in the first set.
The picture didn’t change in the second sentence either. While the Hartbergers initially put little pressure on the service in their first final game, the highly efficient favorites were once again ahead quickly with 7:2. The East Styrians briefly got within 19:21, but the hosts made it 2-0 with a score of 25:20.
In the third set, Hartberger took the lead for the first time (8:2) and shortened the lead after a clear increase in performance. The Tyroleans now made significantly more mistakes, which meant that the guests forced a deciding set after a strong comeback. In this case, Hypo had the better nerves again. For coach Markus Hirczy’s team it was the first defeat in the current play-offs after five wins in a row.
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