29/07/2015 22:09
Greece’s men vie for spot in Final Four as their countrywomen celebrate European League home debut
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Men & Women
Lamia, Greece, July 29, 2015. After a break of five years the city of Lamia, which is situated in central Greece, is getting ready to welcome both the men’s and women’s Volleyball national teams for their upcoming matches in the 2015 edition of the CEV Volleyball European League as they play Belarus and Turkey, respectively.
“We are very happy to host our national teams in Lamia which is a city with a long tradition in Volleyball, and I would like to welcome also the teams of Turkey and Belarus,” said the mayor of Lamia Nikolaos Stavrogiannis while the vice mayor and member of the board of the Hellenic Volleyball Federation Vivian Argyri added: “Lamia is a city that loves Volleyball and I’m sure that Chalkiopoulio Sports Hall will be fully packed.”
The men’s team are in the elite club with a perfect record of six wins in as many matches so far in the competition that also includes Estonia and Slovenia but Greece’s mentor Sotirios Drikos has other priorities. “We have to see every match separately and as an extra motivation in order to play even better than we did in our previous games. Belarus is a very good team and they qualified for the Final Round of the 2015 European Championship but they have had a lot of injuries and that’s the reason of their poor results in this competition so far.”
“We are very pleased to be here in the city of Lamia and I hope the fans will enjoy all the matches. For us those two matches against Belarus are another challenge but until now we have shown that despite our young age we are a good and very ambitious team,” stated Greek captain Menelaos Kokkinakis.
On the other hand for the women’s team the two matches against Turkey will mark their European League debut. “I hope Lamia will bring luck to our teams and with the support of the fans the men will celebrate their qualification to the Final Four of this competition and we will get a perfect start of our campaign,” said team captain Eleni Kiosi.
“Playing against Turkey is always a big challenge but I’m confident that my girls will do their best. I cannot say that we will win but for sure we will try to perform at our best and we will play good Volleyball. I’m sure the atmosphere in the sports hall will be an advantage for us and I wish good luck to our men’s team. They have already made a huge progress and they deserve to be in the Final Four,” concluded the mentor of the women’s team, Ioannis Kalmazidis.
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