OK Partizan - Klek 3:1 (superliga, round 17)

Less than minimal information available about the game: check.
Cursing and swearing heavily because of this: check.
Still attempting to write a blogpost: check.

That’s how it is.

Most important is that we won, though in the beginning it didn’t look like so. Klek won the first set to 18:25 and they were leading even in the second (7:8). Then we picked ourselves together and took the advantage around the middle of the set (16:11). The last stage of the second part was a parade made by us, we won it to 25:18.
The next set was easy, we won it without many difficulties (25:20), while in the last one we completely swept the guests off the court (25:16), keeping the game not longer than 84 minutes altogether. The Veličković- Popović-Polomac trio made an amazing job.

OK Partizan: Pantić (8), Nedeljković, Žugić, Lopar (11), Kostić (8), Tasić, Rajković (libero), Jokanović, Veličković (20), Polomac (10), Popović (16), Perišić
Head coach: Vladimir Vasović

Klek: Tomić (13), Ateljević (6), Grče, Grbić, Tanović (6), Narančić (9), Roljić (8), Đukanović, Providžalo (6), Petrović, Slavnić (libero), Stašević (libero)
Head coach: Davor Čuk

Current championship standings:
1. CZ 48 points
2. Vojvodina 44 points
3. Novi Pazar 34 points
4. Niš 28 points
5. Partizan 28 points
6. Spartak Ljig 21 points
7. Radnički 18 points
8. Ribnica 18 points
9. Klek 15 points
10. Inđija 1 point

Crvena Zvezda - OK Partizan 3:1 (superliga, round 16)

It wasn’t funny.
I brought a lot of screenshots though.

Teams warm up

OK Partizan’s lineup

Introducing players

Group hug before the start

The first set was awful. We made all the possible mistakes. Zvezda was far ahead of us (15:10, 18:11, 22:12), we were mostly just assisting. It ended with 25:13, the result tells it all.
Some screenshots from the first part:

First timeout at 5:1

Receivers: Buša, Pantić and Lopar

Lopar doesn’t look happy (who would be, when the opponent leads with 8:3?...), Kostić is confused

Service: Lopar...

...Kostić...

...and Veličković

Our nervousness calmed down a bit for the second set. At 8:3 we made a fantastic series, we equalized (8:8). Zvezda tried to run away (12:8), but we worked off the difference and were constantly behind them with a step (12:11). The home team was leading for the entire set, but the difference was only a few points now and our game was more and more confident. Still Zvezda won the second part to 25:20.
Images:

Polomac getting ready for service

Earning a point

Head coach Vladimir Vasović

Battle

Dimitrije Pantić

Receivers before a service

For the third set things started to work suddenly. At the beginning we were behind them with only 1-2 points (5:4, 6:5, 7:6), then we equalized (11:11).
Then we took the lead, for the first time during the match! (12:13)
To celebrate it Popović scored a giant ace, so big that Zvezda-players had to take a few deep breaths before continuing. (12:14)
They couldn’t take back the lead for the rest of the set. Sometimes they equalized, but that didn’t last long. It was close, but we kept ourselves. We won the set to 23:25.
Images:

Polomac is about to serve

Receivers

Rajković, the best libero

Ivan Kostić

Nemanja Jokanović serves

In the last set something blew out. We got too tired or the pressure was too big. Sometimes we equalized, once we took the lead (12:14), but Zvezda equalized (15:15) and from then on they kept all in control. The fourth part ended with 25:19.
Images:

Vladimir Vasović trying to shake up the boys

It’s our turn

 Boris Buša

High five

Cleaning staff

End of the game, handshakes

Crvena Zvezda: Okolić, Jevtić (libero), Skrbić, Gmitrović, Stavlić, Milutinović (9), Jakovljević (12), Stoisavljević (11), Munćan (7), Blagojević (24), Veljović, Buculjević (3)
Head coach: Dragan Kobiljski

OK Partizan: Buša (15), Pantić (15), Nedeljković, Žugić, Lopar (7), Kostić (2), Rajković (libero), Jokanović, Veličković (5), Polomac (7), Popović (3), Perišić
Head coach: Vladimir Vasović

League table will be brought later.

OK Partizan - Crvena Zvezda 0:3 (superliga, round 7)

The next smash in the face was received by the volleyball team. They clashed with the eternal rivals, and the neighbouring team had an overly confident victory against us. It barely took more than an hour.
For the first set the neighbours were leading with 4-5 points for the whole time (4:8, 12:16, 16:21). They won it to 18:25. (The official report says that Partizan had a lot of mistakes, red team took advantage of them.) The second set was more narrow. Red team was leading even then, too, but only with 1-2 points. They could still win it to 23:25.
The last game was similar to the second. It was narrow with only one or two points of difference, but even here the opponent was leading for the whole time. They won it to 23:25, eventually winning the match to 0:3.
The hero of the day is Dimitrije Pantić with 13 points. He is followed by Dušan Lopar (10), Luka Veličković and Boris Buša (9-9), Aleksa Polomac (4) as well as Marko Popović (3).

(photo: zurnal.rs)

League table comes later.

Update: current championship standings
1. Vojvodina 18 points
2. CZ 15 points*
3. Novi Pazar 13 points*
4. Spartak Ljig 12 points
5. Niš 11 points
6. Radnički 11 points
7. Klek 9 points
8. Partizan 7 points
9. Ribnica 5 points
10. Inđija 1 point

Teams marked with * played only 6 matches so far.

Radnički Kragujevac - OK Partizan 3:1 (superliga, round 6)

Yesterday there were two more games Partizan-teams took part at. The volleyball team travelled to Kragujevac to clash with Radnički.
Well... why should we try to attenuate it? We had a nasty defeat.
All looked smooth at the start. We won the first set to 16:25. It all seemed to be easy, maybe Veličković and Lopar even told each other jokes while rotation.
Then something surely happened, because Radnički sped up unbelievably for the second set - so much that they won it to 25:9 (!!!). (They made it to 8:2 even in the beginning, with black magic maybe...)
For the third part head coach Vladimir Vasović calmed down the upheaval in the heads. Kragujevac was still leading for the entire set (most probably), but the result was more narrow than the previous. The home team won it to 27:25, leading to 2:1 at this point, but hope was still not lost.
The problem was that Kragujevac mercilessly won the fourth (and last) set as well. It ended with 25:19, and with this Radnički won the game to 3:1.
The hero of the day was Luka Veličković with 11 points. He is followed by Aleksa Polomac (9), Boris Buša and Marko Popović (8-8), Dušan Lopar (7), Dimitrije Pantić and Vukasin Nedeljković (3-3) as well as Ivan Kostić (2).

Current championship standings:
1. Vojvodina 15 points
2. Novi Pazar 13 points*
3. CZ 12 points*
4. Niš 9 points
5. Spartak Ljig 9 points
6. Klek 8 points
7. Radnički 8 points
8. Partizan 7 points
9. Ribnica 5 points
10. Inđija 1 point

Teams marked with * played only 5 games up to now.

OK Partizan - Inđija 3:1 (superliga, round 2)

In the second round of the volleyball superliga Partizan welcomed Inđija and won over them in a very narrow match that brought nip-and-tuck fight.
We won the first game to 27:25, but the standing constantly kept on changing, once with us on the lead, then with the guests. At first they were leading to 7:8, not allowing us to grab the lead for a longer time. Inđija was still leading to 15:16, and the standing was so open that nobody could predict who’d win. Finally we took the lead (21:20) and won the set with hard fight.
The second part was the same tough, with the same, always-changing standing, being absolutely open until the end. It was 20:21 when we heated up the Parni valjak and won the set to 25:23 with blood and sweat.

It’s not easy now, a lot of players left the team. Last year’s ace scorer Milija Mrdak has gone as well as the two Nikolić’s, Marko and Petar. The current name list is full of new players.

In the third set Inđija sped up. They grabbed our throat, used black magic, bewitched us and left us behind to 8:16. It didn’t become any easier even later, they kept themselves to 13:21, finally winning it to 18:25.
For the final part we warmed up our reserve energies, so did the opponent. Very narrow battle, one point here, one point there, nerves in pieces. We had a 21:16 advantage, but Inđija reduced it to 21:20 and it was so narrow that we could feel their blood-thirsty breath on the back of our neck. Finally at 24:23 we had the match ball, made it to 25:23 and won the 3 points.
The hero of the day is Luka Veličković with 18 points, followed by Dušan Lopar with 16 points. Marko Popović scored 15 points, Dimitrije Pantić made 14. They are followed by Aleksa Polomac (7), Ivan Kostić (5), Boris Buša, Vukasin Nedeljković and Nemanja Jokanović (1-1).
If there’s any photo or video about the game, I’ll update the post.

Luka Veličković, the hero

(photo: cev.lu)

Current championship standings:
1. Klek Srbijašume 5 points
2. Niš 4 points
3. Novi Pazar 4 points
4. Spartak Ljig 3 points
5. CZ 3 points
6. Vojvodina 3 points
7. Radnički 3 points
8. Partizan 3 point
9. Inđija 1 point
10. Ribnica 1 point