Luxembourg, February 28, 2021. Another splendid sunny day was the backdrop to the second Sunday of the CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour 2021 in Wagrain. The successful event on the Austrian snow ends with the gold medals for Lithuania 3 (women) and Ukraine 1 (men).
Women
Gokalp, Merve C., Yalcin faced Lithuania 3 in the first semifinal in the morning, who had beaten their compatriots Lithuania 2 in the 9:50 match. After losing the first set, Lithuania 3 came back to draw level. Lithuania 3 looked determined to take advantage of the opportunity and worked hard to snatch the ticket for the final from the winners of last weekend. The team made up of Kovalskaja, Grudzinskaite, Nauduzaite stormed to a 14-9 lead, but the Turks did not give up and fought back to 12-14 after an extremely long rally, before Lithuania closed the match and treated themselves to the final.
Czech Republic (Adamcikova, Jakubsova, Knoblochova, Zolnercikova) played earlier on Sunday earning a spot in the second semifinals against Lithuania 1 who had qualified on Saturday. The Czechs took the lead by winning the first set, but in the second set they found themselves playing point by point. The set ended 13-15 for the Czech Republic who reached Lithuania 3 in the final.
In the early afternoon the programme started with the 3rd place final. Turkey soon found themselves in difficulty against Lithuania 1, who won the first set 15-11. Turkey did not give up and equalized the score, bringing the opponents to the tie-break. The third set gave Turkey the second consecutive medal in this CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour 2021 after taking gold last week at the same venue.
The gold medal for Lithuania 3 arrives from Kovalskaja, Grudzinskaite, Nauduzaite who in two sets beat the Czech Republic 15-6, 15-12.
Men
The men's semifinals started with Poland vs Ukraine 1. An intense match, characterized by excellent plays by both teams, ended with a winning block by Kuzmin that allows Ukraine 1 to play the 1st place final.
The second match between Lithuania and the Russian champions of last weekend delivered great entertainment for Snow Volleyball fans. It was a continuous head to head, starting from the first set from which Bakhnar, Daianov, Bobrikov, Mikhalev emerged victorious after three set points (20-18). In the second set the Russians clearly imposed their power by winning the match 2-0 and qualifying for the final.
It took Lithuania 26 minutes to win the bronze medal and reach the third step of the men's podium (2-0: 16-14, 15-10). The team from Ukraine 1 took the gold medal, beating the Russian champions from last weekend with a clear 2-0.
