Volleyball Empowerment supported teams bring home valuable medals
The men’s national team of Indonesia and the women’s national team of Thailand won the Southeast Asian Volleyball Leagues, held over the past two weeks. Serbia topped the podium at the BVA U21 Volleyball Women’s Balkan Championship on Sunday, while pairs from Lithuania grabbed both gold medals and a bronze at the EEVZA Beach Volleyball Championship in Tbilisi over the weekend.
Southeast Asian Men’s Volleyball League
The second leg of the inaugural Southeast Asian Men’s Volleyball League took place in Santa Rosa, Philippines from 28 to 30 July, and, for the second time, Indonesia achieved a clean sweep of the round-robin tournament to claim their second title. The Indonesian men’s national volleyball team has so far been allocated a total of CHF 27,000 of FIVB Volleyball Empowerment coach support.
The Indonesians started with a 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-14, 25-23) win over Vietnam, followed up with a straight-set 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-20) victory over hosts Philippines and finished their campaign with a nail-biting 3-2 (25-27, 20-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-9) victory (pictured in the main photo; credits: asianvolleyball.net) over Thailand. Vietnam finished runners-up after five-set wins over Thailand and Philippines, while Thailand, another team supported by Volleyball Empowerment, completed the podium with bronze, despite competing with their second squad due to the first team participating in the Volleyball Challenger Cup.
Indonesia’s Halim Farhan was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the three-day tournament. Setter Dinh Van Duy (Vietnam), opposite Rotter (Philippines), outside hitters Thanomnoi Jakkrit (Thailand) and Arabi Boy Arnes (Indonesia), middle blockers Kurniawan Hendra (Indonesia) and Truong The Khai (Vietnam), and libero Prasojo Prasojo (Indonesia) were named on the Dream Team.
The previous week, Indonesia were even more convincing at home, in Jakarta, where they lost only a set (to Thailand) in the three matches played. Thailand finished second after sweeping their games against third-placed Vietnam and fourth-placed Philippines.
Southeast Asian Women’s Volleyball League
Thailand topped the podium at the first leg of the women’s SEA V. League, held last week in Vinh Phuc, Vietnam. Hosts Vietnam; supported by Volleyball Empowerment through the 2023 Knowledge Transfer programme, hiring a physiotherapist to work with the team, and Thailand had defeated the other two teams on the first two competition days and met face to face in the deciding match on Sunday. After a hard-fought 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-17) turnaround, the Thais snatched the inaugural title, leaving Vietnam with the silver, while the bronze medals went to Indonesia.
Full house in Vinh Phuc for the Vietnam v Thailand decider (Photo credits: seavleague.com)
Thai star Kongyot Ajcharaporn took two individual awards, for MVP and for a Dream Team outside hitter. The other Dream Team nominations went to setter Doan Thi Lam Oanh (Vietnam), opposite Hoang Thi Kieu Trinh (Vietnam), outside Tran Thi Thanh Thuy (Vietnam), middles Siti Nur Fadhilah Wilda (Indonesia) and Nuekjang Thatdao (Thailand), and libero Pannoy Piyanut (Thailand).
The SEA V. League (formerly known as Asean Grand Prix) is a series of international volleyball tournaments in Southeast Asia featuring the men’s and the women’s national teams from Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. The second women’s tournament is set to take place this week, from 11 to 13 August, in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
BVA U21 Volleyball Women’s Balkan Championship
The 2023 Balkan Volleyball Association (BVA) U21 Volleyball Women’s Balkan Championship was held from 2 to 6 August in Brcko in a single round-robin format with the participation of Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Türkiye and hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After each winning their first three matches of the tournament, Serbia and Türkiye met in the last match of the event in a de-facto final to determine the champions. The Serbians claimed a 3-1 (25-20, 15-25, 25-17, 25-19) victory to remain undefeated and top the podium on a 4-0 win-loss record. Türkiye (3-1) settled for silver, while Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-2) took the bronze, followed by Montenegro (1-3) in fourth place and Albania (0-4) in fifth.
Serbia’s Ksenija Tomic was honoured as the tournament MVP. The remaining individual awards went to Türkiye’s Arslanap Ozge for Best Setter, Türkiye’s Miray Guzubuyuk for Best Opposite, Serbia’s Una Vajagic for Best Outside Hitter, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ema Klopic for Best Middle Blocker, Albania’s Anxhela Mehmeti for Best Libero and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Amina Halilovic for Fair Play.
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EEVZA Beach Volleyball Championship
Lithuania pairs supported by Volleyball Empowerment triumphed as both women’s and men’s champions and also took the men’s bronze at the Eastern European Volleyball Zonal Association (EEVZA) Beach Volleyball Championships held in Tbilisi from 3 to 6 August, featuring teams from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Ukraine and host country Georgia.
Lithuanian national beach volleyball duos have so far been allocated a total of CHF 193,000 Volleyball Empowerment coach support since 2017. Under the guidance of current coaches Robert Zuchowski and Gytis Garbaciauskas, Arnas Rumsevicius and Mantas Donela, and Karolis Palubinskas and Saulius Vilkelis took the men’s gold and the men’s bronze, respectively, while Gerda Grudzinskaite and Rugile Grudzinskaite topped the women’s podium in Tbilisi.
In the men’s final, Rumsevicius and Donela mastered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) victory over Latvia’s Bruno Bulgacs and Ernests Gutmanis. In an all-Lithuanian third-place match, Palubinskas and Vilkelis battled with compatriots Galdikas Laurynas and Emilis Bartkus for three sets to emerge with a 2-1 (21-16, 19-21, 15-6) win and a spot on the podium.
In the women’s final, Grudzinskaite and Grudzinskaite squeezed out a close hard-fought 2-0 (22-20, 25-23) win over Latvia’s Anija Ozolina and Beate Liepajniece. Georgia’s Lizzy Irine Lobzhanidze and Ana Diasamidze pleased the home crowd by claiming the bronze. In another tight straight-setter, they overcame the resistance of fellow Georgians Mariami Mukasashvili and Irina Tchelidze to take a 2-0 (25-23, 21-19) victory for the third place.
Teams, officials and volunteers at the medal ceremony of the EEVZA zonal championships in Tbilisi (Photo credits: cev.eu)
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