09/06/2016 11:10
Lithuanian teams vie for home success at first ever Satellite event on home sand
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vilnius
Vilnius, Lithuania, June 9, 2016. Actions start on Thursday at Credit24 Arena in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where a women-only CEV Satellite tournament will be taking place through this coming weekend. This is the first time a Satellite tournament is hosted in the country and the local teams are very much hoping to use the home-court advantage to achieve a good result. It is expected – and hoped – that the support of the local crowd will help Lithuania women’s teams make it at least to the semis of the inaugural CEV Satellite tournament.
The 16-team Main Draw is set to start on Friday with the medal matches to follow on Sunday. The qualification round will be contested on Thursday to determine the eight teams that will join those already seeded in the Main Draw.
Among the 16 pairs contesting the qualification round there is also one team from Lithuania – Migle Mazurkeviciute and Ieva Vasiliauskaite.
Another three Lithuanian teams are seeded in the Main Draw. Team Lithuania will be anchored by multiple age-group world and European medallists Ieva Dumbauskaite and Monika Povilaityte, who last year won bronze at the Baku 2015 European Games. Next to Ieva and Monika, 21-year-old Urte Andriukaityte with partner Irina Zobnina and Ieva Kazuraityte/Vilte Makauskaite are also set to start their campaign from the Main Draw.
Mr Marius Vasiliauskas, President of the Lithuanian Volleyball Federation, set high hopes for the Lithuanian teams when addressing the media at a press conference held on Wednesday in Vilnius. “Lithuania first organised Beach Volleyball events some years ago and it all started with age-group championships. Now, our girls have already moved to the senior level. Therefore, they will be testing their skills in this CEV Satellite, which is the second tier among European Beach Volleyball competitions. This tournament will reveal where we stand and what kind of skills we have developed.”
The President of the Lithuanian Volleyball Federation expects not only Povilaityte and Dumbauskaite to reach the semi-finals, but in his opinion Andriukaityte and Zobnina are capable of achieving the same feat. Teams from Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Spain are expected to be their closest competitors on the way to the semis.
“I think the foreign teams competing here in Vilnius stand at the same level as ours, so this means we can fight for the medals,” Vasiliauskas, who is coaching Povilaityte and Dumbauskaite himself, claimed. However, he agreed that some of the top European teams did not travel to Vilnius as another Satellite tournament is taking place this week in Baden, Austria.
The home players look enthusiastic as well: “We know most of the teams that will be competing here. So our goal, first of all, is to play the best we can. We hope to get to the final four together with another Lithuanian team,” Dumbauskaite said.
The event on home sand will be especially for Dumbauskaite and Povilaityte a perfect rehearsal for the final phase of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup that will be taking place later this month in Stavanger, Norway and where a spot to compete at this year’s Rio 2016 Olympics will be at stake.
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