Luxembourg, January 10, 2020 . Cyprus's Men's U20 team became the first to secure a berth in the next round, as the the 1st Round of the 2020 Men's U20 European Championship and 2020 Women's U19 European Championship got into full swing on Friday.

Men's U20
Cyprus held off Croatia 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-17) to finish their obligations in Steinbrunn undefeated, leaving hosts Austria and Croatia to sort it amongst themselves on Saturday for second place in the pool.

Sotiris Siapanis once again led the scoring for Cyprus with 27 points - just over the 25 by Gabrijel Cvanciger for Croatia. Austria and Croatia will fight for second place in the pool when they lock horns on Saturday.

Play in the other pool opened with Estonia shutting out hosts Kosovo 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-12). The home favourites were able to put up a fight especially in the second set, where they kept the score close up to 11-all before dropping an early 3-0 advantage in the third set where Estonia responded with five points in a row of their own and did not look back anymore to seal a comprehensive 3-0 victory.

The top team of each men's pool plus the best of the 2nd-ranked teams advance to the 2nd Round of the competition, to be held in seven pools late April / early May across Europe. The finals are in Brno, 28 August to 5 September.


Petra Kostic of Montenegro tips the ball past the attempted block of Kosovo's Amela Llugaliu Friday evening in Herceg Novi.

Women's U19

Israel and hosts Montenegro have taken an early advantage in the sole WU19 1st Round pool at Herceg Novi.

Israel swept Sweden 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-17) with Tali Hakas and Valeriia Gamanovich each scoring 14 points for the winners. Daniella Aström and Elin Larsson scored seven apiece for Sweden in their losing effort.

Montenegro followed suit, downing Kosovo 3-0 (25-17, 27-25, 25-14), on the back of 13 points by Majda Cakar. Melirona Avdullahu with 11 for Kosovo was the only other player to go into double digits.

But the home team did have to fend off two set points in the second set at 22-24, before moving on with a three-point run to go ahead 25-24 and finish the set on the third try of their own.

The winners of the Herceg Novi tournament advance to join Serbia, Belgium and Hungary in Pool B of the 2nd Round; the runners-up in Herceg Novi will play against Italy, the Netherlands and Slovenia in Pool A of the 2nd Round in late April / early May.

The finals of the Women's U19 European Championship are jointly hosted by Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia, 22-30 August.

Click here for further information on the CEV U20M Volleyball European Championship 2020 and the CEV U19W Volleyball European Championship 2020.

MU20: Cyprus vs Croatia 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-17)

“Another strong performance by the Cypriots. Siapanis was even stronger today than against my own team on Thursday. He is absolutely their leading player. They really deserved to reach the next round.”
Roland Schwab, Austria coach

MU20: Kosovo vs Estonia 0-3 (13-25, 17-25, 12-25)

“Today we served very well, which I think made the difference in this game. However, Kosovo have good players and if they work a little bit more, they are going to play very good volleyball in the future. About tomorrow’s game against Switzerland, I think it is a new day and a new game, so we are determined to secure another win. We do not know much about Switzerland so we will push hard in order to qualify as the winners of the pool.”
Toomas Jasmin, Estonia coach

“I don’t think it was an easy game. We did not play together for a long time, since we had a long break from the national team; nevertheless, it was a good game to start the tournament, but I think we can do much better. We can make amends for the mistakes we made tonight in order to have a better match against Switzerland.”
Märt Tammearu, Estonia captain

“The big shortages we have to deal with in our roster affected us a lot in our game. We have been training and we are used to play together, so the lack of a couple of key players affected us a lot tonight.”
Albin Rashica, Kosovo captain

“We have had a lot of shortcomings, like middle blocker Leka Shyti, but also two liberos could not join the team for health reasons. The second set was better, but some mistakes we made are not forgiven, and we need to improve.”
Ramadan Parduzi, Kosovo coach

WU19: Montenegro vs Kosovo 3-0 (25-17, 27-25, 25-14)

"I would like to congratulate my teammates on our teamwork, which showed in the result. With this match, we made it easier for the fight to continue in this round, and hopefully move on."
Marija Susic, Montenegro captain

"We gave our best, but lost the match. We tried so hard, as the score of the second set shows, but we didn't have a lucky day. I think in the second match we will do better."
Vjona Lekaj, Kosovo setter

WU19: Israel vs Sweden 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-17)

"We achieved our first win and I think it was a good, hard game. With our performance we made sure they would make mistakes, whilst we played very well as a team. We are very happy and we can't wait for the match tomorrow."
Mika Rome, Israel captain.

"I think we played a good game, but unfortunately we did not do enough in attack. Israel also produced a very good defence. I think we need to play better in the remaining matches."
Hilda Gustafsson, Sweden captain