The home crowd had the opportunity to enjoy the amazing performance of the local squad Pavlicko/Kilian/Ehrenwald/Trubac who opened the campaign with a big win over Romania’s team Mehedinteanu/Draghici/Popa in Round 1 and continued their winning streak defeating in three sets Italy (Amorosi/Di Risio/Sasso/Terranova) and Poland (Groszek/Szczepanik/Matyja/Warzocha). Saturday was also an extremely successful day for teams representing Lithuania. In the men’s event Kazdailis/Donela/Donela/Matulis amazed everyone with their great performance, as they emerged victorious from very fierce three-set-battles. In the Round 1 they defeated Poland (Belczyk/Cwiernia/Korczyk/Barczyk), then in the longest game of the day (45 min!) they beat the favourites – seeded as no 1 -  Russians (Bobrikov/Bogatov/Mikhalev/Daianov) and at the end of the day survived one more tie-break against Ukraine (Bokshan/Kuzmin/Skukis).

 

 

In the women’s competition top seeded teams Russia and Lithuania didn’t disappoint. The Lithuanian team Bekis/Frelik/Vlada - with Bekis/Frelik the silver and bronze medalists from the first two stops of the European Tour in Armenia and Georgia - overpowered Czech Republic (Cebakova/Stara/Siruckova) in Round 2 and Slovakia (Poszmikova/Elekova/Slezakova/Tokosova) in Round 3. The Russian squad Filina/Romashova/Terenteva/Tolchina defeated Hungary (Györi/Lutter/Kovács) and Czech Republic (Knoblochova/Zolnercikova/Budinska), thus both Russia and Lithuania secured a spot in the semis.

 

For most of the foreign competitors it was the first experience in the Slovak ski center, but all of them have enjoyed the games in Donovaly. “The venue is great. And the weather is also surprisingly good,” said Lithuanian player Svetlana Bekis, who hopes to finally add a gold medal to her collection. “We finished second and third already, but now we want to win,” added Bekis, who has already advanced to the semifinals with her teammates. Swiss player Remo Spahr praised the organisation of the event: “The venue in Donovaly is perfectly prepared. I like  the LED panels around the central court, it helps a lot. And also the temperature is much better than on Friday as it´s not so cold anymore.”

 

Italian player, Giorgio Amorosi added: “I feel here like at home. Nice people, beautiful mountains. I have never been here before, but I will be happy to come back here again. I like that every member of the organising committee knows what to do. It helps a lot to bring more attention to snow volleyball if we want to grow it as a sport."

 

The President of the Slovak Volleyball Federation Martin Kraščenič visited Donovaly too. “Organising the national championship and the European Tour during one weekend is a good idea. It is a big attraction for fans. Donovaly enjoys an excellent geographical location. It is not so far from every corner of Slovakia. To be honest, I only took snow competition as an entertaining version of classic volleyball, but I had to change my opinion. This is a sport that could make it to the Olympics and we would be the only sport at both the Summer and Winter Games, if snow volleyball was to make a breakthrough under five rings in the future,” said Kraščenič.

 

The competition will be continued on Sunday. Click here for futher information.