01/12/2018 19:00
After achieving success on snow, Lithuanian girls aim high on sand too
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Ljubljana Winter
Ljubljana, Slovenia, December 1, 2018. Lithuania’s Urte Andriukaityte/Vytene Vitkauskaite are making their first big steps in the international Beach Volleyball scene, as they are trying to take the most from their FIVB World Tour debut at the Ljubljana 1-Star event this weekend. They already achieved success on snow before – and on Sunday will be vying for a medal in the Slovenian capital, this time on sand.
The 21 and 25-year-old players from Kaunas successfully teamed up for the Lithuanian national championship in 2018, which they eventually won. Before the national triumph in Vilnius, their outdoor Volleyball experiences had much to do with Snow Volleyball, as they successfully competed with different partners on snow as well. Andriukaityte secured gold at the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour stop in Bakuriani, Georgia with Irina Zobnina, before finishing ninth later in March at the inaugural European Championships held in Austria. Vitkauskaite, on the other hand, claimed third place at the first-ever Lithuanian Snow Volleyball championship back in January.
Urte Andriukaityte portrayed during the gold medal match of the 2018 Snow Volleyball European Tour stop in Bakuriani, Georgia
“We are at the beginning of our partnership. We have only played one tournament so far, it was the Lithuanian national championship, which we won. We wanted this partnership to last so we thought participation in this tournament would be a good way to continue. We wanted to enter the international arena, and it seemed a pretty good way to begin this adventure with a 1-Star tournament,” said 21-year-old Andriukaityte, while her four-year older partner added: ”We need practice with girls that we do not know, it is not so much about the points or about winning, but more about the practice.”
The obvious goal for a team that defined itself in 2018, are the Olympic Games, but they do not want to rush into anything. “Obviously, every sportsman’s goal is to play at the Olympics someday, but you need to start somewhere and not necessarily shoot for the highest results immediately. Our goal right now is just to play as many events as possible. We just love playing this game, we enjoy playing on sand a way more than playing indoors, and if we have the opportunity to go somewhere, we just try to make the best of it,” said Andriukaityte, who together with Vitkauskaite decided to give her all to Beach Volleyball.
“We talk about it every day, how much joy it brings to us and how much we want it. When you play indoor Volleyball, sometimes five players have the desire for it, but maybe the other six or seven ‘have to’ play and it affects the whole team. In Beach Volleyball, on the other hand, everything depends just on the pair and that suits us both. Therefore, from now it is just Beach Volleyball for us and maybe some Snow Volleyball on the side, just for fun,” added Vitkauskaite.
Urte Andriukaityte (right) showing the gold medal she won at the Snow Volleyball European Tour in Bakuriani, Georgia together with former partner Irina Zobnina
It will be interesting to see how Beach Volleyball players will adapt to the changes made in the Snow Volleyball game, as the new regulations are transforming the standard 2-on-2 game to 3 vs 3. “I think it will be very interesting to play Snow Volleyball in this format. So far, we are so used to playing 2 vs 2 that we really cannot say anything about the new rule. We will see what it brings and first we have to try it for ourselves,” says Vitkauskaite. “I think that playing 3 on 3 on snow makes a bit more sense, because points will eventually last longer than they did up until now,” Andriukaityte added. “It is too difficult, it is too slippery and it would be more interesting to see longer rallies. But for the record - we still prefer sand.”
So far, it is all good for the Lithuanian girls in the Ljubljana 1-Star event, as they dominated Pool B with two consecutive wins over Slovenian team Katarina Fabjan/Klara Kregar and Latvian duo Varvara Brailko/Anete Namike, which secured them a direct spot in the top eight of the tournament.
Always playing with a smile - on sand and on snow as well: Urte Andriukaityte (LTU)
In the quarterfinals, they beat the Belgian duo Sarah Cools/Lisa Van Den Vonder 2-0 (21-18, 25-23) to go for a rematch with Latvians Brailko/Namike in the semi-finals on Sunday. “It is difficult to make any predictions for the playoff, we just have to hit the court and do our best every time. We do not like to make any speculations about the eventual result. We will just make sure to give our best every time we step onto the court. A medal or not, it really does not matter,” admitted Andriukaityte, while Vitkauskaite shared their one rule on the court: “It is to play with a smile on our face. It is a game and you cannot be nervous or stressed about it. We are here because we want to be here, it is a game, it is a nice game, we love it and we want to have fun while playing it.”
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