2018 MEN’S EUROPEAN VOLLEYBALL LEAGUE
- May 19th-June 16th, 2018
- European Volleyball League Homepage
Pool play finished up today in the 2018 Men’s European Volleyball League, leaving us with just the Final Four to play. The Silver League awaits action on Friday, but the Golden League is underway with the semifinals now in the books with the winners earning a bid to the Men’s Challenger Cup with Portugal, who gets to host the event.
FORMAT:
In the 15th edition of the Men’s European Volleyball League, the tournament is split into two divisions: a 12-team Golden League and an eight-team Silver League. All teams are split into four-team pools for their division. In the Golden League, all three pool winner plus Czech Republic (or the team in second if they win their pool), the Final Round host, advance. In the Silver League, the winner of each pool, the next best team and host-Macedonia will advance to the last four.
Overall, this event acts as a qualifier for two teams to the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Challenger Cup, which provides an opportunity to make the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Nations League.
THE FINAL ROUND:
Golden League:
- Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic| KV Arena
First-Place Match:
ESTONIA DEF. CZECH REPUBLIC 3-0
- Estonia def. Portugal 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-21)
- Estonia wins Gold at 7-1; Czech Republic finishes with Silver at 3-5
Both of these nations already clinched a spot in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup by making it to this point, with this match just serving as the cherry on top. That produced a gold medal for Estonia, while Czech Republic will go home with a silver following the three-set match as now it’s less than a week turnaround to the next event.
Neither team found much success in the serve and the blocks were close to even with a three-kill lead for Estonia (43-40). The biggest team stat that stood out in favor of a Estonia sweep was just 13 team errors for the winning team compared to 22 for the Czech side.
Individually, Michal Finger (18 points) and Donovan Dzavoronok (12 points) were two of three in double-digits for Czech Republic, but were outdone by the trio of Oliver Venno (14 points), Renee Teppan (13 points) and Timo Tammemaa (12 points). Those three were a key component to Estonia having a 57% attack execution compared to 47% from Czech Republic.
Third-Place Match:
TURKEY DEF. PORTUGAL 3-2
- Turkey def. Portugal 3-2 (25-16, 21-25, 25-14, 22-25, 15-11)
- Turkey wins Bronze at 5-3; Portugal finishes in fourth at 5-3
Turkey was able to fend off Portugal for the bronze and a third-place finish at the European Volleyball League. The win won’t give the Turkish side any advancements and a chance at the Volleyball Nations League, but it’s a strong finish to the event as they look to use the positives as a springboard for 2019.
Portugal was actually the better blocking team (14-11) and only had one less kill, but the battle of the serve proved the difference. Turkey not only notched three more aces (5-2), but had 11 less serve errors (9-20). That 14 point swing was the difference in a match where Turkey outscored Portugal 108-91.
Spearheading the effort for the Turkish side was Metin Toy, who led the match with 24 points. Only one other player for the nation had double-digit points, although seven players had three or more points outside of Toy with four at seven or more points. For Portugal, they did have a dynamic duo of Marco Evan Ferreira (20 points) and Alexandre Ferreira (17 points), but no other player had more than seven.
SCHEDULE:
Semifinals
| Date | Time | Score | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jun | 16:00 | Estonia  |
3–0 |  Portugal |
26–24 | 26–24 | 25–18 | 77–66 | Report | ||
| 13 Jun | 19:00 | Turkey  |
0–3 |  Czech Republic |
22–25 | 25–27 | 20–25 | 67–77 | Report |
3rd place match
| Date | Time | Score | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jun | 16:00 | Portugal |
2–3 | Turkey |
16–25 | 25–21 | 14–25 | 25–22 | 11–15 | 91–108 | Report |
Final
| Date | Time | Score | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jun | 19:00 | Estonia |
3–0 | Czech Republic |
25–21 | 25–22 | 25–21 | 75–64 | Report |
Leave a Reply