Volleyball · National
Suhl wins the January derby in Erfurt and climbs to fourth
Suhl defeated Erfurt 3–1 on 29 January. Erfurt took its fifth set of the season, but Suhl collected the three league points.
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A four-set win at the Riethsporthalle
VfB Suhl won 3–1 away to Schwarz-Weiß Erfurt on 29 January, taking the sets 25–18,25–18,22–25 and 25–15. The visitors’ report records 712 spectators, including around 200 Suhl supporters, and identifies Anna Artyshuk as their leading scorer with 22 points. Erfurt’s Ana Krulj scored 19 and received the silver MVP award, while Suhl libero Emma Sambale won the audience-selected gold award. Sambale had assumed the full libero role in the absence of Minami Yoshioka. The result was Suhl’s twenty-second win in 23 Bundesliga derbies against Erfurt and lifted the club to fourth for the first time that season, above Potsdam. Erfurt remained without a league point despite taking its fifth set of the campaign. A subsequent Erfurt preview confirms that the team had won one set in Wednesday’s home derby.
A different score from the earlier January meeting
The clubs had already played another derby in January, at Suhl’s Wolfsgrube on 18 January. Erfurt’s report of that match records a straight-sets defeat,25–19,25–20 and 25–15. Erfurt had made an encouraging start, leading 7–2 and 11–5 in the opening set, before Suhl recovered to 13–13 and went on to win it. The second set also featured an Erfurt lead before the hosts changed the direction of play. That earlier match had moved Suhl to fifth. The 29 January return therefore brought Erfurt a set it had not taken in the preceding meeting, while still preserving Suhl’s dominance of the regional matchup and improving the visitors’ league position again.
Illness was part of Erfurt’s preparation
Erfurt’s immediate preparation had included a 1–3 defeat in Münster on 25 January. The club’s report, published the following day, said illness had disrupted training and kept Kira Thomsen out of the lineup. Erfurt won the first set 25–18, then lost the remaining three 10–25,17–25 and 22–25. Young player Tabea Dreiack made her Bundesliga debut and contributed a serving run in the final set. The club identified inconsistency and the illness wave as factors in that loss, while already looking ahead to Suhl’s Wednesday visit. The derby report subsequently listed Paige Reagor as unavailable and Thomsen as able to participate only to a limited extent.
Another regional test immediately ahead
Erfurt’s 31 January preview then turned to a trip to third-placed Dresden on 1 February, with an 18:00 start at the Margon Arena. Both teams had little preparation time: Erfurt had played Suhl on Wednesday and Dresden had faced Stuttgart on Thursday. The preview also introduced two young arrivals, Teresa Ziegenbalg at Dresden and Lea Feistritzer at Erfurt. Feistritzer had come from the Stuttgart national training centre to replace Lara Darowski following her move to Potsdam. Both players were 18, and the club presented their potential first-division debuts as a possibility, not an accomplished fact. Erfurt’s preview described Dresden as clear home favourites after winning both previous meetings between the clubs that season.
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