T&T senior men’s volleyballer, Marc-Anthony Honore and his SL Benfica captured their 18th Portugal Men’s Volleyball Cup with a come-from-behind 3-1 win over surprise finalist AJF Bastardo in Sines, Portugal on Sunday.
In the decider, SL Benfica which ended the top of the A-1 Division Regular Season standings as well prevailed 26-28, 25-16, 25-22, 25-20.
A day earlier, Honore and his team-mates swept past Sao Mamede 25-23, 25-19, 25-17 in their semifinal while AJF Bastardo stunned Regular Season runner-up Sporting CP 19-25, 25-23, 30-28, 25-22.
Benfica, three-time champions will now turn its attention to the best-of-five semifinals of the A-1 Division where it faces the same AJF Bastardo starting Sunday, March 24 followed by matches on March 30 and March 31, and if needed April 6 and 13.
Sporting and SC Espinho square off in the other best-of-five semifinals.
During the regular season, Benfica topped the 14-team table with a 25-1 record and 75 points, four more than Sporting (24-2) while SC Espinho (18-8) and Bastardo (18-) completed the top four and semi-finalists with 55 and 54 points respectively.
Over in Turkey, national women’s team captain Krystle Esdelle’s Pursaklar Belediyesi suffered a second straight loss, 25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 17-25 to Bolu Belediye to drop to an 18-6 record and 56 points, eight behind Pool B leaders Ankara PTT (22-1).
Iller Bankasi (16-8) and Samsun BSB Anakent (15-9) are third and fourth respectively with 49 and 46 points to occupy the other automatic top four semifinal spots with two rounds of round-robin matches left to play for most clubs.
And in Pool A, Sarriyer Istanbul (22-1), Yesilyurt (17-6), Buyukcekmece (18-5) and Maltepe Yalispor (17-6) were all in winners row to occupy the top four playoff spots with 64, 53, 51 and 49 points respectively.
Up next for Esdelle and her club-mates is their final regular season match versus Anadolu University, on Saturday, March 23.
In the Japan Women’s V League, T&T's Sinead Jack's Denso Airybees chances of advancing to the semifinals were dashed after a 25-22, 19-25, 23-25, 15-25 loss to Toray Arrows.
The win got the Arrows into a good position to reach the last four and in the next round, they will meet Body Queenseis, with a win crucial to both teams' chances. After beating JT Marvelous in straight sets, Hisamitsu Springs booked its spot in the decider.