Memories of last season were evoked with the northern sides beginning the volleyball season in good form. PAOK beat champions Olympiakos in Athens, Aris downed Epikouros Polichnis, Iraklis defeated Lamia and even Apollon Kalamarias snatched a point from Panathinaikos despite going down.
Olympiakos lost at the opening round at home for the third year in succession going down 3-2 to PAOK after deciding not to use setter Andrej Zhekov due to lack of fitness.
PAOK won 20-25, 25-21, 25-16, 22-25, 15-13, using American setter Jonathan Winder who had originally come to Greece this season for Olympiakos.
Cup-winner Panathinaikos found themselves trailing 2-0 (25-23, 25-19) at Apollon Kalamarias, but bounced back (25-17, 25-18, 15-9) to get two points from this game out of a maximum three with a 3-2 victory.
