Finland to vie for final round in Tampere

The City of Tampere has warmly welcomed the participants in Pool E that will be vying for the qualification to the final round of the 2010 CEV Women’s Junior European Championship. In Tampere’s “Ice Hall” the heat is on from Friday to Sunday between Finland, Belarus, Poland and The Netherlands. The hall is the same where Finland is used to play the matches of the FIVB World League.
The best two of the four participating teams will go advance to the final round to be played in Serbia in early September. On the first day of the tournament The Netherlands will face Belarus at 4 pm local time and the home team Finland will match against Poland.
Finnish head coach Mariliisa Salmi, also a long time setter in the Finnish national team, says her team is not an outsider in this tournament. "Technically we are not very far from the other teams. We have had a good preparation. But in Finland we don't have yet the culture of qualifying in group of this age, but maybe now it is our time", stated Salmi.