12/09/2020 19:00
Lithuania, Estonia, Italy, Chile and Latvia to vie for the medals in Vilnius
2020 World Tour 1-Star - Vilnius
Vilnius, Lithuania, September 12, 2020. On Saturday, while enjoying ideal sunny weather conditions, eight teams from as many as five countries made their way to the semis at the World Tour 1-Star event in Vilnius and on Sunday they will be fighting for the medals of the first such tournament ever held on Lithuanian soil. Live streaming of Sunday’s gold medal matches will be available on EuroVolleyTV, the CEV’s YouTube channel and the CEV’s European Volleyball Facebook page.
On Saturday morning, the highest-seeded Lithuanian team in the men’s competition, Artur Vasiljev and Robert Juchnevic caught a very promising start to their journey in the tournament as they needed two sets only to beat their Latvian opponents Arnis Relins and Ardis Bedritis 21-15, 21-18. Vasiljev and Juchnevic extended their winning streak into the quarterfinals where they easily defeated their compatriots Linas Petravicius/Matas Navickas 21-14, 21-12 to reach the semis.
The Lithuanian players were happy not only with their performance, but also with their home crowd and beautiful courts: “The sand is very good and the location of the courts is superb. We often travel to international tournaments and we rarely see such beautiful scenery in the middle of a city. We would love to have more high level international tournaments in such a beautiful place,” said Juchnevic and Vasiljev in unison.
In the semi-finals, the Lithuanians will play Tobia Marchetto/Alberto Di Silvestre of Italy, who proceeded all the way from their pool to the top four of the competition.
Estonia’s Kusti Nõlvak/Mart Tiisaar reached the semis with much confidence. After their victory over Piotr Groszek/Jan Krasinski of Poland in the quarterfinals, they found themselves in an all Estonian semi against their friends Timo Ander Lõhmus/Dimitriy Korotkov, who upset the home crowd with their victory over Lithuanian reigning champion Patrikas Stankevicius and his partner Mantas Donela in a very tight and intriguing match (21-18, 24-22).
In the women’s tournament, home stars Ieva Dumbauskaite and Karole Virbickaite secured a spot in the semis after a tight 2-1 (22-24, 21-14, 15-9) three-setter against Kristine Briede and Krista Paegle of Latvia. In the semis, the local favourites will be playing another Latvian tandem, namely Marta Ozolina and Luize Skrastina.
Claudia Scampoli, a silver medal winner from the 2018 Youth Olympics Games, has reached the semis as well with her partner Margherita Bianchin. The Italians beat top-seeded Vytene Vitkauskaite and Urte Andriukaityte of Lithuania 2-0 (21-12, 21-18) to play Maria Francisca Rivas Zapata and Chris Vorpahl Villablanca of Chile for a spot in the gold medal match.
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