Latvia and Estonia off to flying start in EEVZA #EuroVolleyU18M qualifier
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On Thursday, Team Latvia started the Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association (EEVZA) Championship – which counts as a first-round zonal qualifier for next year’s #EuroVolleyU18M – with a commanding victory over Georgia – 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-12).
Tomass Silavs scored six of his 20 points from the service line, Aksels Marks Džeriņš contributed 13 points, and Ernests Pastars added another 10 to Latvia’s tally. Meanwhile, Pēteris Auniņš earned three of his seven points with blocks. Georgia’s Nikolozi Tskhadaia scored half of his six points from blocks, while Nikolozi Aburjanidze also contributed six points.
“I evaluate the first match positively. It is always nice to win – no matter how it’s done. We won very convincingly, we executed our game plan, at times struggled with easier balls, but overall I am satisfied,” said Latvia U18 head coach Raimonds Liniņš. “I was pleased with the attitude the boys showed on the court. I liked that they wanted to win. We can certainly improve our handling of easy balls, which would help us compete better against stronger teams.”
In the battle for first place in Pool A, Latvia will face Poland on Saturday.
“We expect Poland to be a strong opponent. After all, it is a major Volleyball nation. So far we have only briefly observed them; after lunch we will head to training. They are tall and certainly know how to play Volleyball. We will see how they play against Georgia tomorrow, analyse, prepare, and then play as well as we possibly can,” Liniņš added.
In Pool B – featuring Azerbaijan, Estonia, and Ukraine – Estonia opened the tournament with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-20) win over Azerbaijan.
“We also watched the match between Estonia and Azerbaijan, but since Estonia won convincingly as well, the analysis won’t reveal much. The Estonians can play good Volleyball too, and we will have to prepare for them if we end up facing them,” said Liniņš.
On the final competition day, teams will play placement matches against those who finish in the same position in the opposite group.
The eventual winners of the tournament will secure the only direct berth to the European Championship Final Round, which will be decided on Sunday.
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