Way to replace Zaytsev, Gabi Garcia!

Gabriel Garcia was on fire in the Champions League on Wednesday as he subbed in for Ivan Zaytsev and helped his Italian team, Cucine Lube Civitanova, come back and win their game at Lokomotiv Novosibirsk, booking their ticket to the quarterfinals in Europe’s continental competition. The rising Puerto Rican star’s performance earned him a well-deserved MVP nomination.

The 23-year-old opposite, who won gold at the 2021 NORCECA Championship with Puerto Rico as the second best scorer of the tournament and is expected to shine at this year’s FIVB Volleyball World Championship in Russia in his national team jersey, came to Lube at the beginning of the season straight from Brigham Young University in USA’s college championship, with the difficult challenge to compete with Italian star Ivan Zaytsev for his position on the court.

While in most recent Italian SuperLega matches it was Zaytsev who received the most playing time, Gabi Garcia has been instrumental in Lube’s Champions League success so far this season. However, in Wednesday’s important Pool C game in Russia, the 2.00m-tall Puerto Rican was not among the starters. With Zaytsev clearly not having a good day on the court and Lube losing the first set, coach Gianlorenzo Blengini gave Garcia a chance to shine putting him in as a starter for the next three sets. With Argentinean setter Luciano De Cecco creating the spiking opportunities, Gabi registered a 57% success rate in attack, producing 16 kills towards a match high of 17 (including one block) and claiming the MVP award of the match.

Garcia’s Cuban teammates, outside hitter Marlon Yant and middle blocker Robertlandy Simon, added 14 and 11 points, respectively, towards Lube’s 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-20) victory, while Serbian international opposite Drazen Luburic was Lokomotiv’s highest scoring player on 14 points.

Leading the Pool C standings on a 5-0 win-loss record and 14 points, 2021 FIVB Volleyball Club World Championship silver medallists Lube are now one of three teams with secure spots among the continent’s best eight teams, while coach Plamen Konstantinov’s Russian squad no longer have a shot at qualifying. They are third in the table on 1-3.

Second-placed Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle of Poland (3-1, 10), the defending Champions League titleholders, will have to battle on, hoping to either take over the top of the pool from Lube or place among the three best-ranked of the five pool runners-up to advance to the quarterfinals. On Tuesday, ZAKSA mastered a 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25-21) away victory at Slovenia’s Merkur Maribor, with Polish international Kamil Semeniuk firing six aces from the serving line and adding eight spiking kills and two stuff blocks towards a match-high 16-point tally and the MVP award. Semeniuk has now taken the lead as the best server of the pool stage so far with a total of 13 aces to his name.

Dinamo Moscow’s setter and captain Pavel Pankov, Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, also left a good impression from the serving line as he contributed five aces towards his team’s 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-13) away win at Poland’s Projekt Warsaw in Pool B. The Russian powerhouse are still unbeaten this Champions League season (5-0, 14) and a sure participant in the next stage of the competition.

The third team to have already progressed to the quarterfinals, even before playing their fifth game in Pool A, are Poland’s Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj, already untouchable on top of their pool standings.