T&T's lone professional men's volleyballer Marc-Anthony Honore and his SL Benfica had their title celebrations in the Portugal Volleyball Federation League men's Premier Division A-1 halted at least for a week when it was beaten in four sets by rivals, SC Espinho to set up a third and decisive match.
Winners of their first of the best-of-three final 25-20, 25-21, 25-16, Benfica, the three-times Portugal A-1 champions and reigning 14-time Portuguese Cup winners had a chance to wrap up the series on its opponents home court on Saturday night, but instead was halted 21-25, 18-25, 25-22, 23-25 by SC Espinho, the 18-time league winners.
Both clubs will now lock horns in a winner-take-all decider on Saturday in Lisbon in a repeat of last year's finals which Espinho won, 2-1.
In last year's opener, Benfica started out the series by claiming a 3-1 home win before Espinho responded by seizing the night at home doing so with the same result before edging the host 25-23, 32-30, 12-25, 19-25, 15-13 in the third and deciding contest.
Benfica advanced to this year's finals after ending the six-team Championship playoffs with 39 points from nine wins and one loss), five points ahead of Espinho.
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