Friedrichshafen claim 17th national cup in Germany

Argentina’s Luciano Vicentin selected as MVP

Published 05:00, 08 Mar 2022

VfB Friedrichshafen celebrate with the national cup trophy (photo: Sebastian Wells, volleyball-bundesliga.de)

VfB Friedrichshafen defeated SVG Luneburg in Sunday’s DVV Cup final to triumph with the trophy for a record-high 17th time. Their Argentinean outside hitter Luciano Vicentin was the team’s best scorer of the match and was named Most Valuable Player.

In front of almost 3,500 spectators at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Friedrichshafen snatched a hard-fought 3-1 (25-20, 17-25, 26-224, 25-23) victory over Luneburg to celebrate with Germany’s national cup trophy. Vicentin, a South American Games 2018 gold medallist and a South American Championship 2019 silver medallist with Argentina, produced three kill blocks towards a total of 16 points, including the match winner, to claim the MVP recognition.

“The game was open right up to the last point. We had two match points. In the first, we missed our chance in defence. In the second, we had a perfect reception and a one-on-one spike in offence. Luciano is the hero of the day. Today we celebrate this title and from Tuesday we think about the playoffs and what else is possible there.” Mark Lebedew, head coach of VfB Friedrichshafen

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With Slovenian national team setter Dejan Vincic masterfully distributing VfB’s attacks, German international opposite Simon Hirsch registered a 60% success rate in spiking bringing his tally to 15 points, which also included two aces and a block. Montenegrin international outside Vojin Cacic also reached double digits, contributing 12 points to Friedrichshafen’s victory. Luneburg’s American outside Jordan Ewert delivered the match high of 18 points.

“It was a big burden for us because we came here as favourites. Since the beginning of the season we have had to overcome a lot of obstacles. Now we all have goose bumps because we rewarded ourselves. We hope to carry the momentum into the playoffs.” Simon Hirsch, opposite of VfB Friedrichshafen

Friedrichshafen won their first national cup crown back in 1998 and, within a period of 22 seasons through 2019, they managed to bring their DVV-Pokal trophy count up to 16.