Altay and Olimpiada Neapolis celebrate with the national trophies
Altay Oskemen and Olympiada Neapolis Nicosia celebrated as women’s volleyball champions of Kazakhstan and Cyprus, respectively, last week.
Altay, a two-time participant in the FIVB Volleyball Club World Championships (2018 and 2021), claimed their seventh national title. The only time they missed out on topping the podium over the past eight seasons was in 2020, when they took silver.
In the best-of-three final championship series at last week’s playoff stage of the Kazakhstani 1XBET National League in Almaty, the squad from Oskemen squeezed out two five-set victories over Kuanysh Petropavl, the team that played at the 2022 Club World Championship some three months ago. In the first game, Altay resorted to an overtime tie-breaker to take a 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 26-24, 20-25, 16-14) win, and in the second they had to come back from a set down to triumph as champions after a 3-2 (25-18, 17-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-11) victory.
Kuanysh’s silver was the first ever in the club’s history, after two bronze medals in the previous two seasons.
The bronze went to Zhetysu Taldyqorgan after 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 27-25) and 3-2 (25-11, 25-21, 22-25, 18-25, 15-9) victories against Ertis Pavlodar in the third place series.
Altay’s Serbian outside hitter Sara Sakradzija was named Most Valuable Player, while the Dream Team was made up of setter Anna Tarasova (Zhetysu), opposite Tatyana Aldoshina (Kuanysh), outsides Maeva Orle (Kuanysh) of France and Sana Anarkulova (Altay), middle blockers Danijela Nikic (Zhetysu) of Serbia and Valeriya Chumak (Altay), and libero Tomiris Sagimbayeva (Altay).
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Olympiada Neapolis Nicosia triumphed in the Cypriot women’s volleyball league for the second time in the club’s history, after their first title in 1992. Thus, they completed their way up the podium from bronze in 2021, through to silver in 2022 and, finally, gold in 2023.
After the last 20th leg of the OPAP women’s championship last week, Olimpiada finished on top of the final standings with 54 points and an 18-2 win-loss record. With the same win-loss, but with 49 points to their name, the silver medals went to Property Gallery Apollon Limassol. Robo Markets AEL Limassol completed the podium, taking the bronze with 11-9 and 34 points.
Cyprus Volleyball Federation President Michael Krashias presented the trophy to Olimpiada Neapolis’ team captain, French outside hitter Veronika Hudima.
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