20/07/2017 17:17
Sunny mood and high expectations for Lithuanian teams ahead of CEV-EEVZA Beach Volleyball Satellite in Vilnius
2017 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vilnius
Vilnius, Lithuania, July 20, 2017. Even the weather forecasts show that the Lithuanian capital is fully ready for the CEV-EEVZA women’s Satellite tournament, which will run in Vilnius from Friday to Sunday.
As many as 28 teams from Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine and of course Lithuania are travelling to Vilnius and will fight for the top honours at the CEV-EEVZA event in Vilnius. Out of these 24, 16 teams will start their campaign with the qualification round on Friday as the top 12 seeds are awaiting them for the Main Draw on Saturday and Sunday.
“Last year we had a memorable Satellite tournament, which was selected as the best event of the summer season by the readers of the main Lithuanian sports portal. On top of this, our young team Urtė Andriukaitytė/Irina Zobnina were the eventual silver medal winners of that competition. This year we have even more high-level players participating in this event, so the stakes for our teams will be high and the competition will be tight. Some teams will be arriving to the Main Draw straight from the 4 star FIVB World Tour tournament currently underway in Olsztyn – this shows that the competition will be on a very high level,” says the Vice President of the Lithuanian Volleyball Federation, Marius Vasiliauskas.
“It is very hard to tell who can be seen as the favourites of the tournament, as all teams are of a similar level. However, we have high hopes for our teams – even more since three Lithuanian pairs will be competing in the Main Draw and we expect one more team to join them after the qualification round. We hope that the matches on home soil and in front of the home crowd will help our teams make it to the final stages of the competition,” he continues.
The qualification tournament starts on Friday afternoon and the Main Draw will then follow on Saturday morning.
“We are both anxious and ready for the games to come,” says last year’s silver medallist Urtė Andriukaitytė. “We know that this year the competition will be even more challenging than it was last year, but we are ready for the challenges ahead! We hope that the home crowd will support us and once again we will have an unforgettable event in our home city.”
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