Panionios and Elitsa Atanasijevic achieved their first qualification for the top 16 of the Women's Challenge Cup with two victories over Romanian Brasov. In the second match in Romania, the "blue-reds" triumphed with a 3-1 set score, and combined with their 3-0 victory in the first match in Nea Smyrni, secured their ticket to the next phase of the tournament. There they will face the winner of the match between Andalusia (Spain) Apeldoorn (Netherlands). In the first match, the Spanish team won 3-1 in sets, and the return leg in the Netherlands is on Thursday (04/12). Panionios won the two sets they needed to qualify, and from the third set onwards, Dragan Nesic distributed playing time among all players to give everyone a chance to perform. The team from Nea Smyrni, despite committing 33 errors, performed excellently at the net with 15 blocks, and also had 39% attack efficiency against Brasov's mere 24%.
Atanasijevic finished with 9 points (8/14 attacks, 1 block), 50% positive reception and 57% attack efficiency.