L’EC Orleans Volleyball was undefeated and had lost only three sets over the entire regular season of Nationale 2. But the adversity went up several notches this Saturday and Sunday and the Orleans women lost twice, against Rixheim then Romans-sur-Isereeach time in a tie-break (2-3) during the final stages of accession to the Elite championship, the antechamber of professional volleyball (League A). A first round that takes place in Orleans, at the Argonaut gymnasium. The second will take place next weekend, at Halluin (North).
Of the five teams (ECO Volleyball, Halluin, Lattes-Montpellier, Rixheim and Romans-sur-Isere) present in this tournament, four will go directly to the Elite. With these two losses, which however bring back one point each, the Loiretaines still have the possibility of moving up to the second division. They will need at least one victory for that, either against Halluinor facing Lattes-Montpellier. But the players ofEmmanuel Turpinat should also benefit from a helping hand from fate, since whatever happens, Rixheim will not access, lack of sufficient budgeton the upper floor.
ECO did not “heed” Rixheim’s announcement
“We still want to ride sportingly, winning“, says the ferryman Maureen Chanas. “We didn’t take into account Rixheim’s announcement today (Sunday, Editor’s note) because we were in front of our home crowd so we put the best team possible. We will try to win the match against Montpellier next Saturday, to have a victory and then we will see if we will rotate or not on the last match. We’ll get all the girls in on the party“, explains his side Emmanuel Turpinat.
ECO Volley has the medium-term ambition of becoming a professional club and since 2020 has obtained a large increase in its budget from the municipality of Orléans.