01/08/2015 23:19
Estonia secure place in European League Final Four tournament
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Tallinn, Estonia, August 1, 2015. The Estonian men’s national team is still undefeated in the 2015 edition of the CEV Volleyball European League and with eight consecutive victories have already secured their spot in the Final Four tournament that will be held on August 13-14 in Walbrzych, Poland. On Saturday Estonia edged Denmark by 3:1 (25-21, 30-28, 29-31, 25-19) to keep their immaculate record in the competition.
“Before the start of the season we stated that our major goal was to make the Final Four and now that this is achieved it just feels great,” said Estonia’s outside spiker Robert Täht after the victory. “It was a hard match. We had some new starting players what affected our game a little bit but eventually it didn’t matter and we cruised to another victory,” Täht continued.
Compared to Friday’s game, Estonian mentor Gheorghe Cretu made two substitutions in the line-up. The re-match with Denmark marked the European League debut for opposite Mart Tiisaar and libero Madis Pärtel. Tiisaar was the third best scorer of the day with 18 points, as Denmark’s opposite Peter Trolle Bonnesen recorded 19 and Täht topped the charts with 21.
Though this was the second consecutive loss of the weekend, Denmark’s mentor Mikael Trolle was still happy about his team’s performance. “We played a lot better today and I am proud that we could stay in the match. Also with our performances this season we have proved that we belong to the European League,” Trolle said. “Estonia have a lot of equally strong players and some people still don’t realise how good their team is,” he added.
Next week, in the last round of pool play, Estonia will be travelling to Israel whereas Denmark will host Austria in two home matches to complete their duties in Pool A.
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