FIVB Men’s Challenger Cup: Czech Republic Wins Pool B; Estonia Downs Kazakhstan

2018 FIVB MEN’S CHALLENGER CUP:

• June 20-24, 2018
• Matosinhos, Portugal

FORMAT:

• What’s on the line?
  • The winning team of the tournament will get to face the lowest ranked challenger team from the 2018 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League.
    • Whichever team wins that match will make the 2019 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League
• Six teams are split into two pools (three in each)
  • The six are made up of the host nation (Portugal), South American qualifier (Chile), Asian qualifier (Kazakhstan), North American qualifier (Cuba) and Golden European League qualifiers (Estonia & Czech Republic)
  • The top two teams from each three-team pool will move on to the semifinals
    • Pool A#1 vs. Pool B#2 & Pool B#1 vs. Pool A#2

RESULTS:

Pool A:

• World Rankings: #30 Portugal, #32 Estonia, #35 Kazakhstan

ESTONIA DEF. KAZAKHSTAN 3-1

• Estonia def. Kazakhstan 3-1 (25-22, 19-25, 25-19, 25-20)
• Estonia improves to 1-1; Kazakhstan falls to 0-1

In a must-win match for Estonia, they took down Kazakhstan in the losing side’s opener in four sets. It now sets up Kazakhstan for a must-win against Portugal tomorrow, while Estonia will wait and see what happens. A Portugal victory in that match would secure Estonia’s spot in the semifinals while an opposite result would end in a three-way tie.

The losing side actually totaled more kills, but Estonia’s powerful block (16-10) and serve (11-5 in aces) cleared the path for the victory. The Asian side also had the matches’ leading scorer in Maxim Michsenko (21 points), but with just two others in double figures compared to five from Estonia and Renee Teppan (17 points) it wasn’t enough.

Pool B:

• World Rankings: #16 Cuba, #27 Czech Republic, #41 Chile

CZECH REPUBLIC DEF. CHILE 3-0

• Czech Republic def. Chile 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-18)
• Czech Republic improves to 2-0; Chile falls to 0-1

The Czech Republic side locked in Pool B with another victory as they will face the runner-up in Pool A in the semifinal round. That also sets up a de facto quarterfinal match, where the winner of Chile and Cuba will be the pool runner-up and advance to the semifinals.

It’s now four straight victories for Czech Republic too after starting 2-4 in the Golden European League, as their block (10-5) and serve (6-1 in aces) reigned supreme once again. They had eight players with three or more points too, including six at five or more and four at eight or more. That was spearheaded by Donovan Dzavoronok (12 points) which helped quell the strong outing of Vicente Parraguirre (nine points), who had less help around him.

STANDINGS:

Pool A

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	Portugal	1	0	3	3	0	MAX	75	55	1.364
2	Estonia	1	1	3	3	4	0.750	149	161	0.925
3	Kazakhstan	0	1	0	1	3	0.333	86	94	0.915

Pool B

		Matches		Pts	Sets			Points
Rank	Team	W	L		W	L	Ratio	W	L	Ratio
1	Czech Republic	2	0	6	6	0	MAX	150	112	1.339
2	Cuba	0	1	0	0	3	0.000	62	75	0.827
3	Chile	0	1	0	0	3	0.000	50	75	0.667

Full Schedule:

Pool A:

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	21:00	Portugal	3–0	Estonia	25–19	25–16	25–20			75–55
21 Jun	18:00	Estonia	3–1	Kazakhstan	25–22	19–25	25–19	25–20		94–86
22 Jun	21:00	Kazakhstan	–	Portugal	–	–	–			0–0

Pool B:

Date	Time		Score		Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Set 4	Set 5	Total	Report
20 Jun	18:00	Cuba	0–3	Czech Republic	19–25	22–25	21–25			62–75
21 Jun	21:00	Czech Republic	3–0	Chile	25–15	25–17	25–18			75–50
22 Jun	18:00	Chile	–	Cuba	–	–	–			0–0