After a 3-2 home win, Ried wants to defend their top three place

It was a real volleyball thriller on Epiphany in the Raiffeisen Volleydome in Ried. In the 13th round of the Volleyball Bundesliga, UVC McDonald’s Ried welcomed the Union Waldviertel team. Both teams went into this duel weakened.

In front of more than 500 loud fans, the Rieders won the first round 25:21. Afterwards, the guests from the Waldviertel took more and more control and took the lead with 2:1 sets. In the fourth set, the Innviertel team were only two points away from defeat at 24:24 and 25:25. UVC Ried kept a cool head, won the fourth set 27:25 and the decisive fifth round 15:9. It took the Rieders two hours and 15 minutes for the 3-2 home win. “The game wasn’t always at the highest level, but the excitement and the spectacular rallies were advertising for the sport of volleyball,” said Ried’s UVC chairman Roman Lutz. “We were really happy about the hard-fought victory. They were very important points for us,” said Lutz.

UVC Ried libero Hannes Langwieser spoke of a constant “up and down”. “We didn’t find our way into the game for a long time. Things went even better for us in a fast-paced fifth set,” said Langwieser. Maximilian Schober, a new signing, celebrated his debut for the Innviertel team. The 23-year-old played for league rivals Amstetten for several years and wanted to end his Bundesliga career. The diagonal attacker wants to make a fresh start in Ried. Tobias Pfoser has left the club. He moved to the second division club Mühlviertel Volleys.

Second in the table with eleven wins

With eleven wins from 13 games and 30 points, the Rieders are still in second place in the Bundesliga. The undisputed leader is the undefeated leader Hypo Tirol with 39 points. For UVC Ried, the remaining five games in the regular season are about getting the best possible starting position for the play-off quarter-finals. Third Hartberg and fourth Aich/Dob are lying in wait, just one point behind Ried. “A top three place is now our big goal,” says Lutz. As second, Ried would play in the quarterfinals against the sixth in the regular round, and in third against the fifth.

However, the remaining program for UVC Ried is anything but easy: of the five remaining games, the Rieders have to play away four times, next Saturday they go to UVC Graz. In the last home game of the regular season there will be the absolute top game against Hypo Tirol on February 1st.

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