25/03/2018 15:55
Lithuania claim historic women’s #EuroSnowVolley gold
2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship
Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, March 25, 2018. Lithuania’s Monika Povilaityte and Ieva Dumbauskaite are the first-ever European Snow Volleyball champions after on Sunday they crowned with success their campaign at the inaugural continental showpiece held in Wagrain-Kleinarl, the real ‘birthplace’ of Snow Volleyball. The gold medal winners from the 2011 CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship and 2012 U19 world champions emerged victorious from a truly dramatic ‘grand finale’ where they upset the recently crowned 2018 ‘Queens of the Snow’, Bugra Eryildiz and Aleyna Vence of Turkey.
Ieva and Monika’s quest for gold started on Sunday morning with a comprehensive 2-0 victory (11-8, 11-4) in the semi-final with their neighbours from Latvia, Alise Lece and Ilze Liepinlauska where they needed only 12 minutes to secure their spot in the gold medal match. However, the ‘grand finale’ of the tournament was a far closer affair, with Lithuania and Turkey fighting for five sets in order to determine which side would call themselves the first-ever European Snow Volleyball champions.
“It feels amazing and I would especially like to thank the many supporters who have been watching the final,” an elated Dumbauskaite said. “The atmosphere here was just great! We still cannot fully realise that we have won this tournament but I can say that we had come to Austria with high expectations. We can truly say that we have made history since this was the first ever European Snow Volleyball Championship and we travel home with the gold medals around our necks. However, there is not much time to party, since after going back to Vilnius, we will be able to rest for a couple of days only before we fly out to Turkey for a Beach Volleyball camp. Beach Volleyball remains our top priority but we enjoyed playing on snow very much and we hope to come back again, possibly for the first World Championship, as we have heard that there are plans to hold one in future.”
Dumbauskaite and Povilaityte have been around for many years already, but they are still 23 only, so you can reckon that there is more to come. Their impressive resume includes a bronze medal from the Baku 2015 European Games and they are now hoping to leave their mark on the FIVB World Tour as well, with their sights set on an event due to take place in China in April.
The gold medal match in Wagrain-Kleinarl was a truly dramatic battle where Dumbauskaite’s prowess at blocking and Povilaityte’s spectacular defence actions combined together were enough to stop the march of this year’s ‘Queens of the Snow’ from Turkey. A record-breaking crowd for a Snow Volleyball match played in ideal conditions witnessed the 48-minute-long gold medal match where Lithuania eventually celebrated a 3-2 triumph (14-12, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-8). Ieva and Monika were absolutely over the moon following the victory, especially knowing that they had played on snow for the very first time back in January when contesting their national championship in Jonava.
There was more to celebrate on Sunday for the Baltic countries since Alise Lece and Ilze Liepinlauska claimed a historic bronze medal following their 3-0 victory (14-12, 11-9, 11-7) in the matchup with Russia’s reigning Snow Volleyball champions Maria Ushkova and Liudmila Dayanova. They somehow continue Latvia’s success story in Beach Volleyball – extending it to Snow Volleyball as well. Lece and Liepinlauska are newcomers to the Snow Volleyball scene but they showed they were a force to reckon with early in the tournament already as on Friday they lost a very close match to the 2017 ‘Queens of the Snow’, Anna Dostalova and Michaela Knoblochova before pulling out a 2-0 victory in Saturday’s quarterfinal match against the Czechs.
They celebrated their historic achievement together with the President of the Latvian Volleyball Federation, Mr Atis Sausnitis, who was among the many guests of honour in attendance on Sunday. As for Lithuania, Povilaityte and Dumbauskaite could count on much support from the stands as well – with the Lithuanian delegation including Ieva’s father as well as the families of the eventual bronze medal winners from the men’s competition, Arnas Rumsevicius and Lukas Kazdailis, for a day to remember for the whole of Lithuania’s sports community.
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