Six teams converge on Lithuania for EEVZA #EuroVolleyU20W qualifier
News
Shortly after celebrating the dawn of the year 2024, the players of six national teams from across the Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association (EEVZA) – i.e. Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine – have travelled to the local sports school gymnasium in Šiaulai, Lithuania, to contest a first round qualifier for this year’s #EuroVolleyU20W. The eventual winners of the tournament will qualify directly for the Final Round of the European Championship scheduled for later this summer in Bulgaria and Ireland. The teams finishing second to fourth will continue their journey in the second and last round of qualification scheduled for the spring of this year.
Three matches per day will be played from January 3 to 7, 2024. The tournament opening match will feature the teams of Estonia and Azerbaijan. Live streaming of all matches is available on the official YouTube channel of the Lithuanian Volleyball Federation.
Jolita Kontvainienė, Lithuania’s head coach, regrets that it was not possible to prepare ideally for the event since a few players were recently ill, but the team will still try to show their best performance:
“The most worrying thing is that a lot of players were sick in December, so they are not in their best shape right now. Before that, we played in the Lithuanian Women’s Championship, and we did very well. The last preparatory tournament in Poland showed that the players have not yet fully recovered, and they made many mistakes. We have tried to make the best use of the remaining time and prepared for the tournament the best we can."
The coach admits that Poland and Ukraine stand out in terms of their skills, and the most intense battle is expected among the Baltic teams.
One of the leaders of the Lithuanian national team, Aistė Bardauskaitė, came home especially for this tournament from the USA, where she combines sports with science:
“It is a great honour for me to represent my country. Individually, we have goals to show our best game every day; as for team goals, we really want to beat the Latvians, who have been our main opponent in recent years.”