Year in Review: Europeans collect three medals in VNL’s return
Editorial
After a forced break in 2020 because of the global pandemic, the Volleyball Nations League made a comeback in 2021 and the Italian city of Rimini hosted the entire third edition of the tournament, which ended with three European teams on the podium.
The result was in line with previous editions as Poland’s silver medal and France’s bronze meant Europe was represented by two teams in the men’s podium for a third-straight time while Turkey’s bronze placed the continent in the top three among the women again after missing it out in 2019.
The Polish got to improve from their bronze medal campaign in 2019 with a campaign that saw them win 13 of their first 16 matches in the tournament before falling to Brazil in the gold medal match.
Bartosz Kurek“I think they played amazing in passing, they kept all our hard serves up, they finished every ball after. In the third and fourth sets our efficiency in spike dropped and we couldn't find our game. It's a lesson, painful lesson, but hopefully we can get something good out of it.”
Polish opposite
Four Polish players made it to the tournament’s Dream Team with Kurek sharing the MVP award with Brazilian Wallace de Souza and joining teammates Fabian Drzyzga (setter), Michal Kubiak (outside hitter) and Mateusz Bienieck (middle blocker) in the ideal lineup.
Outside hitter Wilfredo Leon was also a key piece Poland’s success as he broke the VNL’s serving record for both the most aces in a match (13) and the fastest serve (135.6 km/h) in a 3-1 victory over Serbia.
Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz was also one of the stars of the tournament as he ended it as the top scorer (264 points), best attacker (218 kills) and best server (36 aces). Serbian middle blocker Marko Podrascanin led the blocking standings with 44, teammate Marko Ivovic was first in passes with 123, Slovenian Gregor ranked first among the setters with 407 and Italian libero got the most digs at 161.
France, which had won silver in the inaugural edition in 2018, had to settle for bronze this time, but the team’s VNL campaign ended up setting the ground for their unprecedented victory at the Tokyo Olympics a couple of months later.
Earvin Ngapeth“It's very important to finish as the third team in this competition. It was a very long and hard tournament. With this result we can go and prepare for the Olympics with a smile, because it's always important to go home with a medal.”
French outside hitter
With the Olympics and the 2021 EuroVolley set to happen just a few months later, several national teams, most notably Italy in both genders and Serbia’s women, decided to field young squads in the VNL and keep their stars fresh for the most important tournaments of the season.
That opened the doors for some dark horses to make deep runs in the event, which was held in a secure bubble, and no one did it better than Slovenia on the men’s side. Appearing the event for the first time, the team was a sensation in the preliminary round, finishing third and advancing to the semifinals. Even though the Slovenians came up short in their goal of winning a medal, they still labeled their experience as a very positive one.
Tine Urnaut“I'm really happy about this, because it's the first time - not only at the VNL, but also when we had an opportunity to play so many strong matches in a row. This is a big experience for us and I'm happy about it. Regarding the Final Four, we can learn something from this, improve - we could have played a bit different and more aggressive, but I hope it will be an important lesson and experience for us in the future.”
Slovenian outside hitter
Among the women, with powerhouses Italy and Serbia out of contention, Turkey carried most of the European hopes of a podium appearance and the led by Giovanni Guidetti didn’t disappoint, defeating Japan to take bronze and finish only behind the United States and Brazil, who would go to take gold and silver again in Tokyo later in the season.
Eda Erdem“It feels amazing. We did a great job, but finishing the tournament with a medal is the most important thing and I believe that our team deserved that, because we worked really hard, even if sometimes we couldn't show our best volleyball on the court. During the VNL we struggled a lot, but in the end we played amazing with serve, block, defence, attack - in every part of the game we were leading.”
Turkish middle blocker
Erdem, the tournament’s top blocker with 46 stuffs, was the only European player in the VNL Dream Team. Other players from the continent who also stood out in the event were Belgians Britt Herbots – top scorer (337 points) and best attacker (314 kills) – and Marliens Janssens – top server (23 aces).
