06/09/2020 20:30
Latvia qualify for EuroVolley Men for first time since 1995!
CEV EuroVolley 2021
Nicosia, Cyprus, September 6, 2020. On Sunday, Latvia stormed to a 3-0 victory over hosts Cyprus (25-15, 25-21, 25-23) to secure their qualification for the final stage of CEV EuroVolley 2021 Men. This will be Latvia’s only second appearance in the flagship continental competition for men’s national teams after they claimed 11th place in the 1995 edition of the event held in Greece. Latvia finished the competition in Nicosia with a record of four wins and two losses to celebrate a truly major achievement for the Volleyball family of the Baltic country. Latvia share the same win-loss record with Spain and the same number of points – but qualify courtesy of a much better set ratio (2.3 vs. 1.4).
In their last match on home soil, Cyprus put up a fight but despite their strong resistance, they failed to take at least one set from their opponents.
“We really want to savour this moment, since the last time Latvia qualified for the European Championship was in 1995,” said Latvian star player Hermans Egleskalns. “It is a great success for us and for our country as a whole, but I have to admit that we had come to Cyprus to achieve this result. We knew that the match with Cyprus would be a tough one since we watched their game with Spain but we prepared very well and in the end we succeeded in securing another victory.”
Earlier in the afternoon, the Red Lynxes from Spain had completed their duties at the EuroVolley qualifier in Nicosia with a resounding 3-0 victory (25-19, 25-22, 25-23) in their last Pool D match against the Republic of Moldova. Spain finished their campaign with a record of four wins and two losses – and 12 points and will have to wait for the results of the other pools in January to know if they will be among the best five runners-up that will qualify for EuroVolley as well.
On Sunday afternoon, Spain looked the dominant force from start to end of the match and once again, they showed some imposing blocks to stop the Moldovan spikers. Moldova had to cope with their star players Mihai Voleanschii and Serghei Predius performing below par and they have to be content with a record of two wins and four losses in the group. Victor Rodriguez Perez top scored for Spain with 17 points.
“This victory primarily results from our good performance from the service line as well as at the net, namely with our blocks,” said Spanish player Miguel Angel Fornes. “We took many points with our blocks. We have been working on this, studying the opponents through videos. Now we wait and hope that this result is enough for us to qualify for EuroVolley.”
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