Ανανέωσαν Κις- Λάκουσιτς

Στον Πανιώνιο θα αγωνίζονται και τη νέα αγωνιστική περίοδο οι Καταλίνα Κίς και η Μάγια Λάκουσιτς μετά την συμφωνία που υπήρξε με την διοίκηση των «κυανέρυθρων».
Μετά την απόλυτα πετυχημένη χρονιά που είχαν πέρσι με τον Πανιώνιο όπου κατέλαβαν την 4η θέση η Κίς και η Λάκουσιτς ανανέωσαν την συνεργασία τους με τους «κυανέρυθρους».
Η 30χρονη διαγώνιος από την Ουγγαρία και η 26χρονη ακραία από την Σερβία συνέβαλαν τα μέγιστα στο να κατακτηθεί η 4η θέση και οι άνθρωποι της ομάδας έσπευσαν να ανανεώσουν τα συμβόλαια και με τις δύο. Τόσο η Κις, όσο και η Λάκουσιτς θα είναι τα μεγάλα όπλα του Πανιωνίου τη νέα χρονιά, όπου αρχικά ο στόχος είναι να επαναληφθεί η περσινή πορεία.
Την τελευταία χρονιά στους «κυανέρυθρους» η Κις ήταν η πρώτη σκόρερ με 365 πόντους στην κανονική διάρκεια του πρωταθλήματος. Η Σέρβα γεννήθηκε το 1983, έχει ύψος 1.77 και πρόπερσι έπαιξε στον Ηρακλή Κηφισιάς. Η Λάκουσιτς ήταν η δεύτερη σκόρερ του Πανιωνίου με 231 πόντους στην κανονική διάρκεια του πρωταθλήματος.

ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΑΝΔΡΩΝ: Στη Σερβία η 14άδα του Ευρωπαϊκού

Στην τελική ευθεία μπαίνει η προετοιμασία της Εθνικής ανδρών για το 26ο Ευρωπαϊκό Πρωτάθλημα της Τουρκίας (Σμύρνη και Κωνσταντινούπολη, 3-13 Σεπτεμβρίου). Δεκαεπτά διεθνείς οι Κουρνέτας, Προύσαλης, Ψάρρας, Παπαδημητρίου, Στεφάνου, Αρμενάκης, Ρουμελιώτης, Λάππας, Μπάεφ, Χριστοφιδέλης, Καριπίδης, Ριζόπουλος, Πανταλέων, Τζούριτς, Σμαραγδής, Ανδρεάδης και Κανέλλος προπονούνται δύο φορές την ημέρα στο «σπίτι του βόλεϊ» στην Παιανία υπό τις οδηγίες των Δημήτρη Καζάζη και Γιάννη Φάκα.
Την Παρασκευή (στις 18.00) και το Σάββατο (στις 15.00) θα γίνουν δύο διπλά, ώστε, ο ομοσπονδιακός εκλέκτορας, Δημήτρης Καζάζης να βγάλει τα τελικά συμπεράσματα και να επιλέξει την 14άδα που θα ταξιδέψει την προσεχή Τετάρτη (26/8) για το Βελιγράδι για τα φιλικά τεστ με το αντίστοιχο συγκρότημα της Σερβίας.
«Προχωράμε σε κανονικούς ρυθμούς», τόνισε ο αρχηγός της «γαλανόλευκης», Νίκος Ρουμελιώτης και συμπλήρωσε: «Ίσως ο προπονητής θα ήθελε να γίνουν κάποια φιλικά παιχνίδια και αυτή την εβδομάδα, προκειμένου να βγάλει ασφαλέστερα συμπεράσματα. Αυτό, όμως, είναι αδύνατο, αφού οι περισσότερες καλές Εθνικές ομάδες δίνουν αγώνες για τα προκριματικά του Παγκοσμίου Πρωταθλήματος. Γι’ αυτό και η προετοιμασία συνεχίζεται με διπλές προπονήσεις».
Ο διεθνής κεντρικός, Ανδρέας Ανδρεάδης είπε:«Μπαίνουμε στην τελική ευθεία για τους αγώνες του Ευρωπαϊκούς Πρωταθλήματος, καθώς αυτή την εβδομάδα θα δουλέψουμε στην τακτική και στην ανάπτυξη της ομάδας. Ευτυχώς δεν έχουμε τραυματισμούς. Περιμένουμε τα φιλικά με την Σερβία, για να δούμε σε τι κατάσταση βρισκόμαστε».

Έρχεται ο Μιλιβόγιεβιτς!

Για το βράδυ της Κυριακής είναι προγραμματισμένη η άφιξη του ενός εκ των δύο ξένων παικτών του ΑΡΗ Μαρμούρη για τη νέα αγωνιστική περίοδο, του Αλεξάντερ Μιλιβόγιεβιτς. Έτσι, λοιπόν, ένα-ένα τα κομμάτια στο ρόστερ των “κιτρίνων” συμπληρώνονται, ενώ απόντες εξακολουθούν να είναι οι Νίκος Ρουμελιώτης και Νίκολα Κοβάσεβιτς, λόγω των υποχρεώσεών τους με τις Εθνικές ομάδες της χώρας τους.

Τέλος, στον αγωνιστικό τομέα, η ομάδα προπονήθηκε κανονικά σήμερα, ενώ ο Γιώργος Οικονομίδης έδωσε διήμερο ρεπό στους παίκτες του το σαββατοκύριακο, ελέω Δεκαπενταύγουστου.

Germany take double gold and double bronze at U23 ECH in Russia

Germans Büthe-Grossner and Walkenhorst-Windscheif stood atop the U23 European Beach Volleyball Championships podium as they captured the men’s and women’s gold medal here in Yantarniy Beach, Russia, late Sunday afternoon in front of more than 1,500 excited spectators. German Borger-Sude as well as Köhler-Rohde claimed bronze.



CEV Vice President Jan Hronek as well as Mr. Vladimir Patkin, General Secretary of the Russian Volleyball Federation and CEV Board of Administration member, saw a breathtaking first set in the women’s gold medal match today in Yantarniy Beach, Russia, as both ladies teams Büthe-Grossner from Germany as well as first-seeded Czech Kolokova-Slukova were ready to battle bravely for their first U23 gold medal. When Germans defense specialist Julia Grossner grabed another Czech hammer, Büthe-Grossner already led 19-16. Some moments later, the young Germans finished the first set 21-18 with another well-timed combination.
In the second set, the scoreboard advanced again quite slowly, as both teams proved strong mental power. Kristyna Kolokova brought up set point for the Czechs, and when Grossner’s line shot was some centimeters too long, the high-level gold medal duel went into tie-break.
The Germans led 4-1, and then 8-5, forcing the Czech ladies calling their time-out. But it was already too late. The Büthe-Grossner express was unstoppable now. Büthe brought up match point at 14-12 with a powerful smash, before Grossner ended it two rallies later with a clever diagonal shot, bouncing the German duo into their golden heaven.

“I can’t realize it”, said a very joyful Britta Büthe minutes after the match. “The Czech team was favorite; but suddenly we saw our chance for gold. Julia was doing a perfect job in defense, so I felt just happy and enjoyed playing. Let’s party now, we still have some energy left”, smiled Büthe.



The men’s final encounter faced hosts Yutvalin-Kostyukhin and German Walkenhorst-Windscheif. Even when the Russians played in front of more than 1,500 thrilled fans, German Alexander Walkenhorst und Stefan Windscheif set the pace in the Men’s CEV U23 European Beach Volleyball final match, closing out the first set 21-10 (!).
Things remained stable in the second set as the Germans proved too strong for the Russian duo. However, the hosts fought courageously, trailing 13-16 in the middle of set 2. German Walkenhorst blocked as a champion, whilst his partner managed the defense. Windscheif brought up match point at 20-14 with a hammer through the middle, and ended it only moments later with a smart block-out, 21-14, securing the fourth German medal at the 2009 U23 European Beach Volleyball championships.

“We felt confidently before today’s gold medal match”, said Alexander Walkenhorst. “We didn’t play our best volleyball the first two days, but found our rhythm yesterday afternoon. Furthermore, our strategy worked as planned today, that’s awesome.”

Karla Borger and Julia Sude claimed bronze with a convincing victory over Polish Katarzyna Urban and Joanna Wiatr (24-22, 21-15). After a very balanced first set (24-22), the young German talents used their physical superiority to secure their well-deserved bronze medals. “We had a very hard task yesterday with three tough games in the loser’s bracket”, said Karla Borger after the bronze medal duel. “Nevertheless, we felt ready today. We varied our serves what the Polish didn’t like. We are happy.”

In the men’s bronze medal clash, Stefan Köhler blocked for a 22-20 win in the second set, leveling the game 1-1 against Polish Kadziola-Szalankiewicz. The Germans kept their nerves in the decider, leading 9-6, 13-10, and 14-11. Another Köhler block closed it out at 15-11 with Köhler/Rohde claiming the second bronze medal for the German delegation. “The bronze medal match reflected our whole tournament with many ups and downs”, explained Nils Rohde. “We felt tired after four long days, but our mental power finally made the difference today. What a great experience!”

Earlier in the day, Kolocova-Slukova as well as Büthe-Grossner proved too strong for their opponents in the women’s semi-finals. Kolocova-Slukova knocked out Borger-Sude in straight sets, whilst Büthe-Grossner overpowered Polish Urban-Wiatr in tie-break 15-13. In the men’s tournament, Walkenhorst-Windscheif (21-8, 21-17 against Kadziola-Szalankiewicz) as well as Yutvalin-Kostyukhin (21-20, 21-15 versus Köhler-Rohde) got the ticket to the prestigious final match of the U23 European Championships with very solid play.

The 2009 U23 European Beach Volleyball Championships in Yantarniy turned out to be a major success. More than 3,500 fans enjoyed the matches in Yantarniy Beach at the Baltic Sea. Fans and journalists from all over Europe were present with the matches being broadcasted live on TV. “We saw a very nice tournament on a wonderful venue”, said CEV Technical Supervisor Henrique Gomes. “The organization as well as the player’s level were excellent.”

Yantarmiy Beach is located in the region of Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast. Kaliningrad Oblast forms the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, but it has no land connection to the rest of Russia. Since the fall of the Soviet Union it has been an exclave of the Russian Federation surrounded by Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea. Borderless travel to the main part of Russia is only possible by sea or air.

Serbia and Spain join the entry list for the final round of the 2010 Worlds

As it was expected, the two pre-favorite teams managed to qualify for the final round of the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship after two days of competition at the tournament being currently staged in Kragujevac. This afternoon Spain had to go all the way through up to the fifth set to beat a promising Romanian team 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 21-25, 27-25, 15-13), and Serbia easily broke the Estonian defense to win 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-22) in front of 3100 spectators at the “Jezero” Hall of Sports.


The reigning European champions of Spain had to dig deep to overcome all sort of problems that the Romanian team put in front of them, but at the end they managed to complete the mission of having two victories in the first two competition days. Right from the start, the Spanish team imposed their rhythm and during the first set the Romanians never came close to even think that this first section of the match might have been within their reach. However, in the second set, the Romanian team managed to equilibrate the situation on the court and the teams reached the second technical time-out playing point-by-point (16:15 for Spain). Both teams continued to struggle up to 23:23, when two mistakes from the Spanish side helped the Romanians to tie the match at 1 set for both. In the third set, Romania completed their comeback and kept the convincing lead throughout the whole distance. In the fourth set, the Spanish team showed their fighting spirit and they went to the first technical time-out leading at 8:7. At the second break, the Spanish lead got less narrow (16:14). Romania managed to tie the count at 25:25, but two consecutive points by the Spanish side brought this match to the tie-break. In the deciding fifth set, Spain immediately took control of the operations, but risked 3 match points before being able to finish the match at 15:13.
Legendary Julio Velasco, Spanish head coach commented: “It was hard and we knew that, because Romania is a very good team, and they improved a lot this year. Again, we had problems in reception, but I’m glad that we managed to recover in the fourth and fifth set”.
Romanian mentor Stelian Moculescu added: “It was a good game, unfortunately we lost, but what can you do. Congratulations to the Spanish team. We had a good chance of winning 3:1, we missed it, and life goes on”.



The host team of Serbia started the match against Estonia with a strong will to perform well this evening. Right from the start, the Serbian team got a comfortable lead and it only got bigger by the end of the set. In the first set, the host team left only 15 points to their rivals. In the second set, the crowd in the “Jezero” Hall of Sports did see a real evenly matched clash, because the Estonians significantly raised their level of play. However, they didn’t have enough strength to push it until the end, so the hosts edged out their rivals 25:23. In the third set, Serbia was too strong once again and brought this match to a closure without any problems. The final result was 3:0 (25:15, 25:23, 25:22) for the home side.


Serbian coach Igor Kolakovic: “This is a very important result for us, we played with Romania and Estonia, and you could see that they raised their level of game significantly in recent times, even though they are not among the best European teams. Tonight we won with ease, the result is showing clearly the difference, we started to show off a little bit in the second set, but the Estonian team warned us right away that we should be getting back in track. I think we played very well, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to introduce some players who haven’t had a chance to play in this tournament. We qualified for the World Championship and we are very happy with this result”.


Estonian coach Avo Keel concluded: “Serbia was the favorite team before the start of the tournament and they deserved this victory. I’m glad we had a chance to play with such strong teams and to prepare as much as we can for the upcoming European Championship. This is a good experience for us and I hope we will learn from our mistakes”.

Bulgaria gets closer to book a ticket to Italy

In the second competition day of the 3rd Round Tournament being currently staged in Varna, Bulgaria achieved another impressive victory on the road to Italy 2010. In a direct battle for the top of the table in Pool J, the Lions crushed the Czech Republic 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-14) and almost secured one of the two tickets available for the Worlds. Some uncertainty for the home team derives might derive from the set point ratio, but the Bulgarians are really close to complete their run towards the final round of the World Championship.


The Czechs lost outside hitter Peter Platenik due to an injury in the first set which may have affected their performance. The only set that featured some intrigue on the court was the second one. The Czechs managed to keep it balanced up to point nr. 20, after which some brilliant performances of Bulgarian spiker Todor Aleksiev tilted the score in Bulgaria’s way and then young talent Valentin Bratoev finished the set off with a fantastic ace. Similarly to yesterday’s two games, Bulgarian Matey Kaziyski and Czech David Konecny became the top scorers of the match, this time with 13 points each. The Bulgarian attack was more versatile than yesterday as Todor Aleksiev and Vladimir Nikolov contributed 12 and 10 points respectively to the victory.


“A small secret of our victory was that we made only 8 direct mistakes. Usually we make more” Bulgaria’s head coach Silvano Prandi said after the match. “Tomorrow we will try to play as today. It should be a live-or-die fight for each point. We need to keep this rhythm thinking of the future”. His Czech counterpart Zdenek Hanik added: “Bulgaria was better in each and every element of the game, especially in serving. It is important for us to start thinking about tomorrow's match against Portugal.”


The second match of the day was also a three-set affair, but it was a bit more tied-up as Portugal managed to take turns in leading the score in every single set. However, Holland prevailed on every occasion and won the match 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 26-24) to keep its chances for qualifying alive. The Dutch were certainly more determined to come out on top at the end of this match and succeeded as Rob Bontje finished the Portuguese off with a perfect ace at the match-point. Portuguese opposite Valdir Sequeira became the game’s top scorer with 19 points while Robert Horstink scored 16 for Holland.


For a second day in a row, CEV President André Meyer who is on an official visit to Bulgaria enjoyed the matches as a spectator in the “Dvoretsa na kulturata i sporta” hall in Varna. Today he was accompanied by the President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, Mr. Dancho Lazarov, and Vice President Ivan Todorov, while yesterday Bulgaria’s Head of State Georgi Parvanov was also part of the VIP company to be seen on the stands.

Poland finishes home tournament in great fashion for the delight of the local fans

Slovakia and Poland successfully closed out the 3rd Round Tournament – Pool K beating Slovenia (3-2) and France (3-0) respectively this afternoon in Gdynia. The results had not too much weight as the tickets at stake for next year’s final round of the World Championship were already awarded after two days of competition. Now all four teams will start their final preparations for the upcoming European Championships in Turkey, which is set to start next September 3, 2009.


After two losses, Slovenia's coach Gregor Hribar made some changes in the line-up and his guys played really good in the first set. The Slovenians had a slim advantage until the score stayed at 18-16. Then Slovakia leveled and took over the lead (20-19). The team of Italian-born coach Emanuele Zanini silvered their first set point and won the partial 25-23. In the second set Slovakia took the lead just before the first technical time out (8-7). During the whole partial the gap stood at about two, three points, but the Slovenians fought hard for every ball. They managed to catch up with their rivals at 22-22 and playing with higher energy eventually took the set 25-23. The third set had a very similar scenario, but this time Slovakia didn't let the Slovenians to pull the victory out of their hands. The Slovaks showed some good blocking, made fewer mistakes in reception and in attack, what gave them the final 25-21. Slovenia responded with the same result in the fourth set and the fans in the “Gdynia” Hall saw the first tie-break of the tournament. Slovakia started the decisive partial by winning five points in a row and never looked back. The guys from Bratislava took the set 15-12 and the whole match 3-2.


“The motivation was the main problem today – said Zanini. - Nobody likes to play when you are already out of contention. The whole competition was good for us from some points of view, especially as test of our endurance before the upcoming European Championships. Now I know we're well prepared physically, but we still have to improve in many other aspects”.


Slovenia's captain Tine Urnaut looked exhausted at the press conference after the game. “It was a long match and as it was in our previous games in this tournament, we made definitely too many mistakes. We were down twice, but we didn't give up and leveled the score. We had a terrible start in the decisive set and we weren't able to catch up with the Slovaks”.
Both teams will meet again very soon. Slovenia and Slovakia have been drawn in the same pool of the European Championships in Turkey.

Poland and France will also play in the same group at the European Champs and will start their Turkish campaign fighting against each other. With tickets to Italy in the pockets, both coaches decided to use some reserve names in their line-ups. Fully crowded stands served as an additional player for Poland that easily won the opening set 25-17. The second set was much more even, at least in the beginning. Poland led by only one point (8-7) at the first technical time out. The home team doubled the gap just before the second break (16-14) and was clearly running. Some powerful serves of Bartosz Kurek let Poland take a five-point lead and eventually the hosts took the set 25-19. In the third and final period the Poles jumped out to a flying start and led 8-4 at the first technical time out. They increased the lead thanks to great blocking and effective counter attacks. None of the 5000 spectators had any doubts about who was going to win the game. They would surely have watched their pupils in action even for a little bit longer, but the Polish players had completely different plans. The home team finished the job winning quickly the set at 25-21.
“Today's match was rather an exhibition game. Both teams had qualified earlier so the stake wasn't high – Polish captain Pawel Zagumny said. - Nevertheless, I hope the fans aren't disappointed with what they saw”.
Both coaches spoke about the substitutes. While Daniel Castellani was happy with the performance of his back-up players, especially with Pawel Woicki, who was named MVP of the game, Philippe Blain's considerations were a little bit different. “This is not the exact level of my team. I hope this loss won't have any influence on my players before the European Championships. We play there the first game against Poland and I believe that match won't be similar to this one. I wanted to see some reserve players in action and I can say that not everyone played the way I expected them to do”.

Austrian, Brazilian & Norwegian Women Post Otera Open Quarter-final Wins

Teams from Austria, Brazil and Norway secured semi-final spots here Friday afternoon at the US$380,000 Otera Open with seven of the eight players in the “final four” being associated with past successes in this southern Norwegian resort city.

Highlighting the play Friday was three-straight elimination wins by Nila Ann Hakedal and Ingrid Torlen over teams from Italy, Germany and Australia as the ninth-seeded Norwegians rebounded from a setback Wednesday afternoon to advance to their second-straight Otera Open “final four”.

Hakedal and Torlen will also get a chance to redeem themselves against one of the players that helped defeat the Norwegians in the 2008 Otera Open title match as Maria Antonelli returns to the site of her first SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal with new partner Talita Antunes as the Brazilians advanced to Saturday’s second semi-final earlier Friday.

Saturday’s first semi-final will feature a rematch of an earlier confrontation in the third annual Otera Open as the eighth-seeded Schwaiger sisters (Doris and Stefanie) challenge top-seeded Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil. On Thursday, the Schwaigers defeated the Brazilians 21-17 and 21-13 in 34 minutes. Like the Norwegians, Juliana and Larissa posted three elimination wins Friday over pairs from Germany, Austria and Brazil.

After defeating 11th-seeded Daniela Gioria/Giulia Momoli of Italy (21-11, 24-22, 42 minutes) and fourth-seeded Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig of Germany (21-16, 25-23, 49), Hakedal and Torlen advanced to their first SWATCH FIVB World Tour semi-final this year and sixth overall with a 21-16 and 21-13 win in 37 minutes over 20th-seeded Louise Bawden and Becchara Palmer of Australia.

After losing to the Schwaigers Thursday, Juliana and Larissa rebounded with elimination victories Friday over sixth-seeded Katrin Holtwick/Ilka Semmler of Germany (21-17, 21-18, 45), fifth-seeded Barbara Hansel/Sara Montagnolli of Austria (21-14, 21-16, 37) and third-seeded Vanilda Leão/Renata Ribeiro of Brazil (21-18, 21-14, 39).

Juliana and Larissa will be playing in their second Otera Open “final four” after the Brazilians won the inaugural event in 2007. The pair missed the 2008 stop due to Juliana’s knee surgery that forced her to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics with Larissa. The Brazilians will be playing in their 57th SWATCH FIVB World Tour semi-final as Juliana and Larissa have won five gold medals this season to increase their career total together to 26.

The Schwaigers advanced to the Otera Open “final four” for the second-straight season as the Austrians finished third in 2008 for their first-ever SWATCH FIVB World Tour medal. The Schwaigers’ 21-15 and 21-13 quarter-final victory in 38 minutes over Bawden and Palmer avenged a 21-15 and 21-15 elimination quarter-final setback in 34 minutes to the Australians last week in Poland.

Antonelli and Talita, seeded second in the 32-team Otera Open Main Draw, scored a 21-19 and 24-22 win in the quarter-finals of the winner’s bracket over Leão and Renata in 38 minutes. Leão played in the 2008 Otera Open finale with Antonelli after Renata and Talita had placed fourth at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Playing together for the first-time this season, Talita and Antonelli will be playing in their eighth semi-final this season.

The 11th SWATCH FIVB World Tour event for both women and men in 2009 continues through the weekend. The women’s “final four” matches will be Saturday with the men’s semi-finals and medal matches scheduled for Sunday as the winning teams for each gender will split the $30,000 first-place prizes.

Featuring $7.2-million in prize money, the 2009 SWATCH FIVB World Tour continues through the last week of October and first week of November with the men’s final event in China and the women’s last stop in Thailand. Following the Otera Open, two more double gender events remain in Europe with stops in Finland (Aland) and The Netherlands (The Hague). The women’s last European event is a mid-September stop in Barcelona.

Victorious start for Bulgaria and the Czech Republic in Varna

The organizing team of Bulgaria started off with a convincing victory over Portugal in the first match of the 3rd Round Tournament in Varna which serves as the final qualifier for the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship. The hosts sailed through in three straight sets (25-22, 25-16, 26-24) to take an early lead in the standings.
The first set was relatively even-sided, but after the first technical break Bulgaria took a small lead and did not let go until the end with fantastic attacks from star player Matey Kaziyski, but also with many serving errors. In the second set, Kaziyski started to get more support in attack from Vladimir Nikolov and Todor Aleksiev, as well as from the Bulgarian much-improved serving and blocking. Portugal’s very good defense was not enough to stay in contention and the set closed with a crushing 25-16. The visiting team trailed behind the Southern Europeans at both technical breaks in the third set, but was able to come back from three points down to tie at 22, 23 and 24 only to lose the following two rallies and, thus, the set and the match. Matey Kaziyski topped the best scorers’ chart with 18 points. Valdir Sequeira became Portugal’s most prolific player with 15 points. At the post-game press conference both head coach Juan Diaz and captain Joao Jose stated that it was the more experienced team that finally won the match. “It was difficult in the beginning - we were a little bit nervous. In the third set Portugal improved their play and it was difficult for us to attack, especially in side-out. We made several mistakes, but fortunately we won. For tomorrow I hope that our serve will work better, because without good serving it will be very difficult against stronger opponents,” Bulgaria’s head coach Silvano Prandi said. The Lions’ new captain Vladimir Nikolov was pleased to see that the months of heavy training under Prandi started to give some results and positive feedbacks.


In the second match of the day, the Czech Republic beat Holland 3-1 (23-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-21). The Dutch team prevailed in the first set, despite some excellent digging demonstrated by the Czechs. Although Peter Blangé’s men were up in the score throughout the set, the ending was dramatic after the Central Europeans tied at 23. Some excellent attacking and especially blocking from Zdenek Hanik’s team made the second set completely one-sided and the Czechs walked over the Dutch with a stunning 25-13. Thanks to David Konecny’s superb attacking in the third set, his team managed to leave their opponents behind through most of the game. This time the Dutch kept the intrigue by tying at 23, but after a fierce ace by captain Ondrej Hudecek, it went the Czechs’ way this time. The fourth set was also kept in equilibrium until the very end when the Czechs persevered to seal this important victory. Czech spiker David Konecny was practically unstoppable for the Dutch block and contributed 25 points to the win, thus becoming the game’s top scorer. Peter Platenik added 19 for the Czechs and Robert Horstink accounted for 15 points on the Dutch side. “Today we played as a real team, we made fewer mistakes and fought harder,” Czech player Peter Platenik stated after the match. “The Dutch team is really good and we were afraid we might lose, but our mentality was very strong during the match” “We played o.k. in the first set; the second was very bad for us. Then the game actually started. The Czech Republic was more determined in the critical points in sets 3 and 4,” Dutch coach Blangé said. “We lost one match, but the tournament is still running and we know what we have to do”.

Serbia and Spain score important victories in their opening matches in Kragujevac

During the first competition day of the 3rd Round Qualifying Tournament to the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship, Spain managed to beat Estonia 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-14), after having faced some troubles in the first set, while Serbia easily outclassed Romania in three straight sets in front of 3200 spectators at the „Jezero“ Hall of Sports in Kragujevac.
The Spanish team successfully started their qualifying session beating Estonia even though they suffered a lot in the first set when they simply couldn’t find the right pace. In the second set things started to look better for Julio Velasco’s team that recovered very well from a shocking start into the match. Estonia managed to come close by the end of the set, but this part of the match was from the start in the hands of the Spaniards. In the third and fourth sets, the Spaniards were unstoppable and they ended this match fairly easily. After 106 minutes, the final result was a 3-1 for the reigning European Champions.


Miguel Angel Falasca, captain of the Spanish team, said: “This is a very tough tournament because it is very important to qualify for the World Championship. Nowadays, good volleyball is being played all over Europe. We started the match very nervously and the Estonian team played very well in the first set. Fortunately, we managed to come back, we started playing better, and from that moment on our rivals had a difficult time in trying to catch us. We are happy for this victory, but this is only the first step. I hope we’ll win tomorrow against Romania and qualify before the last day of the competition”.
Estonian captain Kert Tobal added: “The first set we played really well, and we had pretty good serve, so we made it very difficult to control the reception for the Spanish side. You know, if you serve well everything gets very easy. Unfortunately, after the first set we couldn’t maintain our good performance in serving, the Spanish side started playing better and we simply couldn’t adjust to the new circumstances on the field”.

It was only until the middle of the first set that the Romanian team could keep up with this year’s World League runner-ups in the second match slated for the opening day. In the first two sets, the hosts of Serbia imposed their game and easily finished the job leaving behind the Romanians at 17 and 15 points respectively. The visitors did manage to wake up in the third set and get a 4-point lead (8-4) at the first technical time-out. Serbia slowly picked up the points and by the second technical time-out it was 16-15 for the host team. However, the visiting team dug deep once again and got back to win the third set 25-22. In the fourth set, Serbia was too strong and right from the start the host team clearly showed the intention to wrap things up and end the match. After 76 minutes of play, the final result was 3-1 (25-17, 25-15. 22-25, 25-18) for the hosts.
Serbian captain Nikola Grbic: “We were very focused today, especially in the first two sets and we continued with good performances after the World League Final Six in Belgrade. However, in the third set we were a little bit more relaxed and they punished us right away. We lost 7 points in a row on a float serve of the Romanian setter and this should never happen, but we must work on that. We need time, obviously we are not 100% ready, but this is a very important victory for us and I hope we can repeat it tomorrow”.
Alexandru Bogdan Olteanu, Romanian captain, concluded: “This is a good start of a long journey for us. We are still a young and inexperienced team, and having that in mind this was a good match for us. I hope we improve our game even more and I know we will be better in the future”.
On the second day of the tournament, Romania will face Spain at 18.00h, while Serbia meets Estonia at 20.30h.