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
The Men’s Golden League was the first of the four (between Silver/Gold and Men’s/Women’s) to commence in the European Volleyball League. Estonia and the host-nation Czech Republic came out on top in the pair of matches, creating a matchup for the championship between the two. Regardless, the most important part is now out of the way, as both have clinched spots in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Challenger Cup with the final match just signifying who will win gold.
ESTONIA DEF. PORTUGAL 3-0
- Estonia def. Portugal 3-0 (26-24, 26-24, 25-18)
- Estonia moves on to the Finals at 6-1; Portugal heads to the 3rd-Place Match at 5-2
Estonia locked in the first spot from the Golden League of the 2018 Men’s European Volleyball League for the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Challenger Cup. For Portugal, it’s not a huge deal as they will already be in the tournament as well as its hosts. For both nations, that will present an opportunity to crack the 2019 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League, but first things first will be Estonia trying to earn gold for pride by winning one more.
The first two sets came all the way down to the very end, but after earning a 2-0 lead in extra points for both games, Portugal may have cracked and lost some composure in the third and final set. They were able to squeeze out the tight wins with a slightly more efficient serve (5 aces: 9 errors versus 4 aces: 13 errors) and nine more kills for the match.
Leading the way individually for Estonia was Oliver Venno (15 points) and Renee Teppan (12 points) with a third presence in Andri Aganits (10 points). The Ferreira’s were almost enough for Portugal in Marco Evan Ferreira (14 points) and Alexandre Ferreira (10 points), but unlike the ‘others’ on Estonia who notched 27 points from the non-top two scorers, the Portuguese side saw just 21 points.
CZECH REPUBLIC DEF. TURKEY 3-0
- Czech Republic def. Turkey 3-0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-20)
- Czech moves on to the Finals at 3-4; Turkey heads to the 3rd-Place Match at 4-3
The Czech side didn’t impress much in group play and went just 2-4 in their pool. Some of that may have been some early struggles, but it’s likely that the main reason they didn’t produce a strong record is because they knew they had a spot in the semifinals locked in as hosts. Instead they could use it to prepare for a moment like this, where they upended a 4-2 Turkey team for the final spot in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Challenger Cup.
The block and attack were the saving grace for Czech Republic, along with the X-factor of their home crowd. They earned four more points with the block (12-8) and had about a 10% better kill rate in the match, which helped to offset struggles with the serve (1 ace: 13 errors).
Individually, the Czech effort was spearheaded by a three-headed monster of Michal Finger (14 points), Donovan Dzavoronok (13 points) and Petr Michalek (13 points), who combined for 40 points. Compare that to Turkey, who got 49 points from their entire roster, although Vahit Emre Savas (13 points) put in a valiant effort.
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 |
– | Turkey |
– | – | – | 0–0 | Report |
Final
| Date | Time | Score | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jun | 19:00 | Estonia |
– | Czech Republic |
– | – | – | 0–0 | Report |
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