Poland punch ticket to #EuroVolleyU18W Final Round following clear run at EEVZA qualifier

Team Poland finished on Sunday the EEVZA qualifier for next year’s #EuroVolleyU18W with a perfect record of six wins in as many matches in the single round robin tournament held in Daugavpils, Latvia. Their run included a 3-0 shutout of hosts Latvia (25-19, 25-17, 25-18) on the final day of the competition. The teams ranked from second to fifth place – Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, and Lithuania – will continue their journey in the second round of qualifications scheduled for the spring of 2024. Poland have qualified for the #EuroVolleyU18W Final Round scheduled for early July in Greece and another host country still to be confirmed. With this result, Poland also crowned themselves EEVZA champions for 2023 in this age group. 

“I am extremely happy with today’s game because it was maybe not our very best, but one of the best games for sure. This Polish team is wonderful, we fought and finally saw something positive on the court, even though it came a bit too late,” said Latvia’s coach Milan Bratić after the game. “The tournament was difficult for both the players and for us, the coaches. The girls played and could rest, but we had to prepare for the next games, one right after the other. I think all the players are tired. It is a strange format to play six games in seven days.”  

“We all wanted to win but the performance on the court did not allow us to achieve our goal. There may have been a lack of training as well as communication with each other,” Latvian team captain Elizabete Barone said. “This tournament gave me a lot of emotions and of course the unique and valuable experience that you can take from playing such international matches.” 

On Sunday, Latvia kept the score close until 8-all in the first set, but Poland scored three times in a row and that break paved the way for their set win. With Polish starlet Natasza Ornoch not playing in the early stages of the second set, Latvia edged briefly ahead (6-3) but after the score was levelled at 14-14, Poland registered six straight points. The third set followed a similar plot, with Latvia putting up much of a fight up to 8-all before Poland broke away and finished the match 3-0 on a service error by Katrina Zarina. Karmena Struka scored 11 points for Latvia, including half of her attempted spikes, while Ornoch and Gabriela Robinska piled up 10 apiece for Poland. 

Earlier on the final competition day, Georgia beat Azerbaijan in straight sets and Ukraine edged Lithuania 3-1. The set won by Lithuania was enough to secure fifth place in the final standing ahead of hosts Latvia and with it a spot in the next round of qualifiers scheduled for mid-April 2024. 

At the end, the organisers of the EEVZA competition awarded the best player of each participating team as follows: 

•    Natasza Ornoch (Poland) 
•    Kateryna Zhylinska (Ukraine)
•    Anette Arak (Estonia) 
•    Magda Kobaidze (Georgia)
•    Diana Ivcenkaite (Lithuania) 
•    Karmena Struka (Latvia) 
•    Aisha Alismanova (Azerbaijan) 

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