International men’s report: Upsets; Champions League, CEV Cup, country results

This is Blair Lambert’s VolleyballMag.com weekly men’s professional volleyball report, featuring Americans around the world. Got a note about a player or a comment for Blair? Email him at blairlambert2@gmail.com

There was a full slate of matches from European cup competitions with the Champions League, CEV Cup and CEV Challenge Cup in full swing last week. Among some predictable outcomes, there was one particular noteworthy upset in Europe’s premier volleyball tournament.

Champions League

TJ DeFalco’s debut in the Champions League led to a shocking result as Tours defeated Asseco Resovia Rzeszów in four sets on Thanksgiving. DeFalco finished with seven kills and a .200 hitting percentage in the loss.

Tours is currently 2-6 in France, and sits in 11th place. While French teams reached the finals three times from 2001 to 2007, the last time a French team has won a playoff series was 2008.

Micah Ma’a got 21 points from Nimir Abdel-Aziz and 18 from Earvin N’Gapeth as Halkbank Ankara went to Italy and left with three points after defeating Gas Sales Piacenza in four sets. Ma’a set Halkbank to a .333 attack efficiency and also contributed a kill. While this result was not an upset, it was not seen as predictable.

In other Champions League action, Dave Smith had seven kills, three blocks and two aces for ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle in a four-set win over Olympiakos of Greece. Erik Shoji passed 43 percent positively and 26 perfect.

Matt Anderson had 12 kills, two aces and two blocks in his return to the Champions League as Ziraat Bankasi defeated Knack Roeselare in four sets. Both ZAKSA and Ziraat are on top of Pool A with three points each.

The Berlin Recycling Volleys picked up a sweep against Benfica of Portugal. Cody Kessel was used as a substitute in the first and third sets and did not score.

SVG Lüneburg earned all three points against Jihostroj Českė Budějovice as Matt Knigge had five kills, a block and an ace. Blake Leeson had four kills and an…