Iraklis and Olympiakos will contest the league final after they scored second victories in their playoff semifinal series over PAOK and Panathinaikos respectively.
Both finalists won away from home against their cross-town rivals on Saturday, while also reserving their places in next season’s Champions League.
Iraklis, who two weeks earlier had lost at PAOK for the regular season, were by far the better side at the court of Pylaia and won 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-16) within one hour and 14 minutes to win the best-of-three series 2-0.
PAOK had shown far greater resistance in Game 1 of the series, which ended 3-2 in favour of hosts Iraklis three days earlier.
Olympiakos did it the hard way once again, but swept Panathinaikos with a 2-0 score in the semifinal series after winning 3-2 on Saturday at Glyfada.
This was the sixth win for Olympiakos over Panathinaikos this season in as many games in all competitions.
For the third time within a week, once for the regular season and twice for the playoffs, Panathinaikos managed to squander a 2-0 set lead over Olympiakos to lose in the tie-break to a never-say-die champion.
The Greens led 25-18, 25-20, but their performance suddenly dipped at the start of the third set, with Olympiakos believing they could stage a full come-back once again.
And so they did: They won the third set 25-17, the fourth 25-19 and the tie-break 16-14.
The Reds will now have to defend their title against an Iraklis who have the home advantage.
source: SPORTINGREECE
