06/09/2020 11:30
Getting to know – Belarus rising star Kseniya Liabiodkina
CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship 2020
Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September 6, 2020. Last week, the young players of Team Belarus claimed the bronze medal from the 2020 edition of #EuroVolleyU19W held in Zenica and Osijek, thus equalling the best result achieved by their country in this competition – another third place recorded in 2002. Volha Palcheuskaya, the former setter of the Belarusian senior national team who retired from the sport two years ago due to a knee injury, helped a group of talented players achieve such a remarkable result. Among these players, team captain and outside hitter Kseniya Liabiodkina is the one that stands out.
Kseniya seems likely to follow in the footsteps of her coach, who won #EuroVolleyU19W bronze in 2002 at the age of 17. This 182 cm tall girl has all of the qualities that can make her one of the future stars of European Volleyball.
Rising star Kseniya Liabiodkina wearing the shirt of Belarus multiple national champions Minchanka MINSK
The girl with such a devastating spike is a member of Minchanka MINSK – the very same team of another four members of the group that competed in Zenica, i.e. Anastasiya Shahun, Lizaveta Bahayeva, Lizaveta Aliseika and Emilia Mikanovich. Liabiodkina is one of two Belarusian players featuring in the Dream Team of #EuroVolleyU19W together with middle blocker Darya Sauchuk.
“I started playing Volleyball at the age of nine. I was at a summer camp when a coach noticed me,” Kseniya recounts. “Of course, I want to continue to grow and develop but I know that there is time for everything. I have already trained with the senior national team. I hope that this was not the only time and that in the future I will be able to play with my senior colleagues again,” she continues.
Team Belarus celebrate with the bronze medals won at #EuroVolleyU19W in Zenica
Kseniya was emotionally exhausted after the championship in Zenica. “Our team knows how to win if we work harmoniously and do not relax. Of course, our wish was to make it to the gold medal match but, due to a number of reasons, we failed to do so. Most of all, at this championship I was afraid of losing the bronze medal match. My team and I have already experienced this before and you will not wish such a feeling even to your worst enemy,” she admits. “Therefore, I am very happy that we finally achieved the goal and that we achieved this together, without letting down our coach. I really wanted to help and support our coach Volha, because we are the first team that she is working with as a head coach and I am glad that we did that,” Kseniya concludes.
Liabiodkina was the third best scorer of the competition on a tally of 96 points behind France’s Guewe Diouf (112) and Serbia’s Vanja Savic (98).
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