Senior women's volleyball pair Darlene Ramdin and Delana Mitchell played key roles in helping their Pieksamaki club secure an upset win over Finnish Naisten Liiga front-runners, LP Salo in five sets on Saturday.
Pieksamaki emerged victorious, 20-25, 25-19, 26-28, 25-21, 15-12 to end a run of five losses while securing their eighth win in 21 matches for 24 points.
The win cemented Pieksamaki's hold on the sixth and final spot in the Championship playoff race, four ahead of WoVo.
Despite its third loss off the season, LP Salo stayed top of the nine-team table with 60 points from 23 matches, 12 clear of LP Kangasala which swept past seventh placed WoVo 25-22, 25-17, 25-20 and has a match in hand while HPK is third with 45 points from 22 matches as well.
In another match on Saturday, OrPo outlasted Liiga Eura 25-14, 25-19, 27-29, 25-9 to stay fourth with 34 points from 22 matches, six more than its opponent.
On Friday, Ramdin and Mitchell and their club will return to action in a key contest with WoVo and one day later versus eighth spot Pislaploki.
Over in Portugal, T&T's Marc-Anthony Honore and SL Benfica suffered only its second loss of the season and first in the Championship playoffs, 19-25, 19-25, 29-27, 25-23, 14-16 to bitter rival SC Espinho on Sunday. It was the second five-set loss of the season for Honore's SL Benfica against SC Espinho following a similar outcome in their round-robin league fixture.
Despite the defeat, SL Benfica, three-time Portugal A-1 champions and reigning 14-time Portuguese Cup winners still heads the "Top Six" playoffs with 20 points from three matches, one ahead of SC Espinho which has won its three matches.
Meanwhile the quartet of Rheeza Grant, Krystle Esdelle, Channon Thompson and Sinead Jack have completed a forgettable season with AZS Bialystock in the Poland PlusLiga Kobiet. AZS missed out on qualification for the eight-team championship playoff race when they ended in the tenth and final spot with a 1-17 record from their 18 matches.
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