Irvine, CA - It was a busy week last week in Greece as the A1 Ethniki League regular season wrapped up while other action continued in Hungary, Italy, Montenegro and Croatia. Also the final round of the LEN Champions League group stage began today. For more on Team USA Abroad
click here.
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Results:
LEN Champions League:
Olympiacos 11 Jug 11
Pro Recco 10 Spandau 7
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Greece:Â
Glyfada 13 Nox-Xania 11
Apollon 12 Peristeri 5
Vouliagmeni 18 Palaio Faliro 11
Hydraikos 8 Ethnikos 6
Nox-Xania 10 Ethnikos 8
Peristeri 8 Nox-Xania 2
Vouliagmeni 14 Hydraikos 9
Olympiacos 19 Chios 5
Olympiacos 22 Palaio Faliro 8
Apollon 20 Volous 8
AEK 7 Chios 6
PAOK 10 Hydraikos 8
Panionios 12 Glyfada 8
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Croatia:Â
Jug 23 POSK 5
Jug 15 POSK 6
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Hungary:
Kaposvari 13 Debrecen 11
Szentes 9 Kaposvari 8
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Montenegro:
Cattaro 12 Primorac 11
Primorac 13 Cattaro 11
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Italy:Â
Genoa 9 Roma 5
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Schedule:
LEN Champions League:
4/20 CC Ortigia vs Jug at 6:15AM PT
4/20 Pro Recco vs Olympiacos at 11:15AM PT
4/21 Olympiacos vs Marseille at 8:45AM PT
4/21 Jug vs Pro Recco at 11:15AM PT
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Greece:
4/20 Apollon vs PAOK
4/20 Peristeri vs Hydraikos
4/22 PAOK vs Apollon
4/22 Hydraikos vs Peristeri
4/24 Apollon vs PAOK if necessary
4/24 Peristeri vs Hydraikos if necessary
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Italy:
4/24 Camogli vs Arenzano
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The final round of the The LEN Champions League group stage kicked off today as each team plays three more games this week to decide the four teams that will advance to the final eight. To begin the day Pro Recco with
Ben Hallock took on Spandau. In a surprisingly close game Recco found themselves level with Spandau 2-2 at the end of the first. Recco took control in the second as they took a 6-4 lead at halftime. Hallock would score his second Champions League goal in the third to increase the lead to 7-4 before Spandau closed within 7-6 at the end of the third. After Spandau tied it at 7-7 Recco reeled off three straight goals to win 10-7. The second game featured a battle of Team USA teammates as Jug with
Alex Obert took on Olympiacos with
Hannes Daube and
Max Irving. Jug took command in the first as they took a 2-0 lead but Olympiacos fought back to narrow Jug's lead to 4-3 at the end of the first. Daube quickly tied the game to start the second to help spark a 3-0 run by Olympiacos as they took a 6-4 advantage at halftime. Olympiacos twice took a three goal lead in the third as Daube scored again but Jug answered to pull within 10-8 at halftime. Jug quickly tied the game to start the fourth and then proceeded to retake the lead at 11-10. Olympiacos fought back though and found the equalizer as the game ended in an 11-11 tie with each team earning a point in the standings. See above for this week's schedule. With the point Olympiacos clinches their spot in the final eight. This week's games can all be seen by
clicking here.Â
The final games of the regular season of the A1 Ethniki League in Greece took place last week with each team playing at least twice. Another matchup took place between Team USA teammates as Glyfada with
Dylan Woodhead and
Ben Stevenson took on Nox-Xania and Bennet Williams. Glyfada jumped out to a 5-1 lead but Nox-Xania came storming back to take an 8-7 lead. Glyfada responded though thanks to 5 goals from Stevenson including the game winner as they won 13-11. Williams led Nox-Xania with 4 goals in the game. The next game saw another pair of teammates face off as Peristeri with
Matt Farmer took on
Alex Bowen and Apollon. It was a back and forth game early on as Apollon led 5-4 at halftime but they took over in the third going on to win 12-5 with Bowen getting on the scoresheet. Despite 6 goals from
Johnny Hooper and 3 from
Chancellor Ramirez Palaio Faliro fell 18-11 to league leaders Vouliagmeni. Nox-Xania bounced back from their earlier loss as they beat Ethnikos 10-8 with Williams scoring a goal. The last round of play saw more teammates matchup as Olympiacos with Irving and Daube took on Chios and
Drew Holland. Irving scored a goal as Olympiacos defeated Chios 19-5 with Holland featuring in net for Chios. In another teammate battle Farmer and Peristeri shut down Nox-Xania and Williams 8-2 with Farmer scoring a goal. The final teammate battle saw Olympiacos with Daube and Irving take on Palaio Faliro with Hooper and Ramirez. Daube scored 4 goals as he helped Olympiacos to a commanding 22-8 victory with Ramirez scoring 3 and Hooper 2 for Palaio Faliro. Bowen and Apollon wrapped up their regular season with a dominating 20-8 victory over Volous with Bowen scoring a goal. Despite just allowing 7 goals Holland and Chios fell 7-6 to AEK. Stevenson and Woodhead both scored a goal as Glyfada dropped their final game 12-8 to Panionios. The top six teams will now compete for the A1 Ethniki League Championship. Olympiacos and Vouliagmeni have a bye to the final round while Peristeri takes on Hydraikos and Apollon takes on PAOK. See schedule above.
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Hungarian League action continued as Kaposvari and
Kacper Langiewicz played two games last week. First they took on Debrecen in a game where they had to battle back. Debrecen leaped out to a 7-5 halftime advantage but Kaposvari were able to close within one trailing 11-10 at the end of the third. Langiewicz scored as Kaposvari reeled off three straight goals to win 13-11. Once again Kaposvari found themselves trailing early in their second game against Szentes at 4-3 at halftime. This time they were not able to come back because for every goal they scored Szentes had an answer as they fell 9-8. See below for game highlights. Kaposvari is off this week and will return to action on April 28 against UVSE.
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Marko Vavic and Roma returned to action in the Serie A1 league as they fight to avoid relegation. Roma couldn't keep pace with Genoa as they fell behind 4-3 at halftime. Genoa took control in the third with a 3-0 run and held off Roma to win 9-5. Roma currently sit in 3
rd place out of 5 teams fighting to stay in the first division. After eight games the team in last place will be relegated to Serie A2 for next year.
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The Montenegro league playoffs continued as
Ash Molthen and Primorac faced off against Cattaro in game two of a three game series hoping to advance to the finals. Cattaro looked to even the series at one apiece but it was Primorac who came out of the gates quickly to take a 3-0 lead. Despite Molthen adding a goal Cattaro fought back over the rest of the game as they tied it at 9-9 to send it to a penalty shootout. Cattaro then emerged victorious in the penalty shootout winning 12-11 and forcing a decisive third game.
Click here for stats. Molthen opened the scoring in the final game but it would be all level at 2-2 at the end of the first. Primorac would take the lead in the second at 4-3 at halftime. Primorac took control in the third as they increased their lead to 9-6 with Molthen scoring again. After Molthen scored again to make it 10-7 Cattaro stormed back to tie it at 10-10. Primorac though responded with a three goal run to win 13-11 and advance to the final series against Jadran which will be a best of 5 series starting April 28.
Click here for stats and
here to re-watch both games.
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The Croatian League playoffs also got underway with Jug and
Alex Obert taking on POSK over two legs. Obert scored twice in the first game as Jug jumped out to a 5-1 lead and never looked back winning 23-5. A younger Jug team featured in the second game as they got off to a slower start holding a 3-2 lead at the end of the first. Jug took over in the second though as they increased their lead to 8-3 at halftime and went on to win 15-6 with Obert scoring once. With the convincing victories Jug advances to play in the semifinals against the winner of Solaris and Primorje.
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