Leganés Prevents Servigroup Playas de Benidorm's Perfect Season

In sports, as in life, everything boils down to perspective. The metaphorical one, with which each person views their favourite athlete or team, and the literal one, the eyes that betray even the best of bluffers. And the eyes, those of the Servigroup Playas de Benidorm players, told many stories on Sunday morning as they boarded the bus for their last match in the second division of Spanish volleyball, a match that would decide the championship title.

They spoke of achieving a long-pursued dream with the promotion secured the previous evening. They also recounted the aftermath of a night slightly longer than usual on the eve of a match. Importantly, they conveyed that behind them still lurked the competitive beast, the shark hungry for success, victories, and titles. In summary, they expressed that after celebrating their ticket to the Superliga, there was still a strong intention to close this magical year by lifting the championship cup.

Facing Adriano Lamb's team were familiar foes. The local team. The only one that, during the regular season, managed to hand a defeat to the Benidorm side. The other team that, out of the 36 that started the competition last October, was also leaving today for the top division. Equally hungry. Equally ambitious. Equally emotionally hungover. Almost identical in every way.

Everything seemed the same as during the regular phase, with the two best teams from group C (and the entire division), but everything was already different. Everything except the rivalry and equality between two squads that devoured the first set of the final in a continuous exchange of points, with Adriano Lamb's team maintaining a slight lead without major gaps, which was only resolved at the very end of the set, closing with a 30-32 in favour of Leganés, which, in any case, did not allow them to be marked as the clear dominator and, therefore, the favourite for the final victory.

The second set began, in general terms, with the same tone as the previous one, with slight advantages for both sides and neither Servigroup Playas de Benidorm nor Leganés managing to break that absolute equality.

Benidorm's team had it in their hands midway through the set when they led by five points, but a swift and effective local response put Leganés back in front (16-17), although this time the coin fell on Adriano Lamb's side, who levelled the score with a 27-25 partial.

The third set began with the worst possible image. With a 2-1 lead for Servigroup Playas de Benidorm, a bad jump by Leganés' Hernández Gil ended with the player lying on the ground in visible pain, forcing the local team's medical staff to enter the court, ultimately only able to help him off to the locker room with some kind of knee injury.

In any case, that absence did not seem to affect Leganés, and the match, in that third set, continued with the same script as before, something logical considering that the two best teams of the season were on the court. A set that ended 25-23 for Servigroup Playas de Benidorm, bringing the overall score to 2-1.

On a morning that seemed to unfold like the famous Groundhog Day, with sets almost identical to each other, the fourth encounter of the match was, for the most part, no different from the previous ones... until Leganés managed, for the first time that day, to break through Servigroup Playas de Benidorm's wall and open a significant gap on the scoreboard, taking the final for the title to a tie-break with a 19-25 partial.

Everything was to be decided in that final set. An entire season reduced to just 15 decisive points in which Servigroup Playas de Benidorm would not only have to play against Leganés but also against a local crowd that, exemplary in their behaviour, raised the decibels every time their team took the initiative.

That, in any case, did not daunt Adriano Lamb's team, who quickly forgot the setback that prevented them from at least fighting to close the match a few minutes earlier and, without being anywhere near their Saturday form, kept the score level, causing doubts at the change of court, where they arrived with a two-point lead (8-6).

After the resumption, Leganés reacted and turned the situation around (8-9), prompting Adriano Lamb to call a timeout, trying by all means to ensure his team could, at the very least, reach the decisive points with a chance of becoming champions.

But that reaction never came, and Leganés emerged as the rightful winner of an intense and long match that crowned the Madrid team as league champions.