Next generation of Volleyball stars to emerge at #EuroVolleyU18W Final Round in Romania and Greece

Romania’s Volleyball ‘Mecca’, the city of Blaj, and Greece’s city of Heraklion on the idyllic island of Creta will welcome the 16 teams due to contest the Final Round of this year’s #EuroVolleyU18W from July 1-13. These have become known following completion of the second round of qualifiers held last week – with Lithuania celebrating a truly historic achievement as they have made it to the Final Round of any continental age-group championship for the first time in their history. 

The city of Blaj and their recently built state-of-the-arts sports hall, home to CS Volei Alba, will welcome reigning U18 European champions Italy (albeit the event contested in 2022 was open to the U17 age group), who join hosts Romania, Volleyball powerhouse Serbia, plus the teams of Slovenia, the Netherlands, Croatia, Belgium, and Spain for what fans can expect will be a series of closely contested matches.  

Two years ago, Türkiye finished second when the last such age-group European championship was held in the Czech Republic. Türkiye will travel to Heraklion to play in Pool II together with co-hosts Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, 2022 bronze medal winners Germany, Hungary, Finland, and newcomers Lithuania. 

As with all other such events open to 16 teams, the top two from each pool upon completion of a single round robin will progress to the semis, followed by the medal matches – which will crown the 2024 U18 women’s European champions on July 13 in Blaj, Romania.*

This is one of as many as six age-group European Championships scheduled for the summer of 2024, together with those in the U20 and U22 categories. If we were to focus on the U18 and U20 age groups only, where the respective Final Rounds are open to 16 teams, the National Federations of Finland, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and Türkiye have reached the final stage of the competition in all four. Bulgaria will feature in all four championships as well – they have qualified for two and will (co)host the remaining two tournaments. 

*The detailed competition schedule will be released early next week.