Group A
The team from the Technical University of Munich won against the Tampere University of Technology 3:0 (25:17, 25:11, 25:14) in the first match in Group A at Bojan Stranić Volleyball Hall. The German team controlled the tempo of the match and the girls from Finland were not able to keep up. The match, which featured no surprises, ended in a confident Munich win.
‘The match was great. We were very nervous at the beginning, but we soon shook it off and got back into the game. Winning the first game is always good. The teams from Ukraine and Croatia are much better than the Finnish team so who knows what will happen. We’re hoping to beat them,’ said the captain of the winning team, Veronika Kettenbach.
The captain of the Finnish team, Sara Rantamki, said that they played good during the first ten serves.
‘After that they played better. It was a good game for us, but it wasn’t enough to win.’
The University of Zagreb and Ternopil National Economic University from Ukraine clashed in the second game of the group. The home team from Zagreb won their first points by beating the Ukrainian team 3:2.
Group B
The volleyball team from the University of Minho won against Tallinn University 3:1 in the second game in Group B at Vladimir Prelog Sports Hall. The University of Minho gained advantage over the Estonian team in the first set and they kept it until the end of the set. The Portuguese team had good serves and the won the first set with 25:16. The Estonians woke up in the second set and showed their aggressive game which brought the second set with 25:17. The third set was very tense. Both teams played great, but the girls from Portugal were more determined and collected, winning the set with 25:21. They continued to put the Estonian team under pressure and won the final set with 25:11.
‘We had a great start and won the first set. But then our opponents, who had a great serve, started giving us a hard time and we had a lapse in concentration. However, we managed to collect ourselves and gave our best in the third and fourth set,’ said the coach of the team from the University of Minho, Carlos Dias.
‘The match ended badly for us because we lost. The whole match was full of ups and downs. We lost the first set, but made a comeback in the second set. Our opponents played very well. We haven’t been expecting them to play so good. They deserved to win,’ said Argo Araka, the coach of the team from Tallinn University.
The German Sport University Cologne played their first match in this competition against the volleyball team from the University of Ljubljana. The German team won the match 3:0 and got their first points.
In the next round, the team from the University of Minho will play against German Sport University Cologne, while Tallinn University will play against the University of Ljubljana.
Group C
In the first matches in group C, the University J.J.Strossmayer of Osijek played against Vasile Alecsandri University , while the University of Lausanne played against Northumbria University.
The Vasile Alecsandri University in Romania won against the team from Osijek with 3:1 (25:23, 19:25, 16:25, 21:25), while the University of Lausanne won with the same result 3:1 (27:25, 23:25, 25:23, 25:13) against the British team.
The team from Osijek put up a real fight only in the first set against the Romanian team, last year’s vice champions at the European Universities Volleyball Championship in Camerino. It looked like the second set would also be tense and unpredictable until the end, but the Romanians woke up when the result was 10:10. They scored five consecutive points, broke Osijek, and won the second set. They continued to dominate the match until the end.
‘The first game on a tournament is always difficult, and we had a good opponent. Although we don’t have a lot of players, each girl gave her all for the team,’ said the coach of the winning team, Cazacu Aurel.
The match between the University of Lausanne and Northumbria University was tense as well. Because the teams are equal in strength, they lead often changed hands, at least until the fourth set. The Swiss team then kicked up a gear and ended the match with a great lead and won their first points. The player Kim Spring explained why it took the Swiss three sets to show their best play.
‘It always takes some time to adjust at the beginning of a competition. After we won the third set, we only had one more step left to victory, while our opponents had two. That gave us the energy necessary to beat them in the last set. I think we enjoyed the match more and that was the deciding factor.’
Group D
The University of Belgrade beat the University of Banja Luka 3:1 in the first game of Group C at Vladimir Prelog Sports Hall. First two sets were very intense as both teams showed their best moves. After the first two sets the score was 1:1 with the team from Belgrade winning the first set, while the second went to Banja Luka.
In the third set, the Serbian team established dominance on the field and won with a 10 point margin. They continued with their confident performance in the fourth set, winning it 25:10.
‘It was a great match. Actually, it was the first match for the volleyball team from the University of Banja Luka at an official EUSA competition and we are happy because it was our first match. We lost 3:1, but Belgrade is in fact one of the volleyball capitals in the world, so we are happy with the match. Tomorrow we play the second match and the day after the third. There’s hope that we will qualify for the quarterfinals and then we will see,’ – Zoran Knežević, coach of the team from the University of Banja Luka, commented on the first game.
‘The team from the University of Banja Luka showed that they are a very good opponent and we had to give our maximum to defeat them, but at the end we came out victorious and we will wait for the other matches to begin,’ – said Ognjen Bulić, the coach of the team from the University of Belgrade.
In the next round, the University of Belgrade will play against the team from Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, while the University of Banja Luka will try to beat the team from the University of Regensburg.
The University of Regensburg beat Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences 3:0 in their first game at Vladimir Prelog Sports Hall. In the beginning of the first set, the German team was in the lead and kept pressing their opponents till the end of the set which ended with 25:15 in their favour. The Polish team opened the score in the second set, but the students from Regensburg instantly caught up. The score was very tight during the set, but the Germans woke up and finished the set with the advantage of eight points– 25:18.
The third set was marked with the total dominance of the athletes from Regensburg and it lasted until the score board showed 12:3. At that point, the girls from Wrocław managed to catch up. Afterwards, the girls from Poland started pressing the opponent and even took the lead. But Germans did not give up easily and, at the end of the toughest set for both teams, the score was 25:23 in favour of the team from Regensburg.
‘We were really concentrated in the beginning, we had a really good serve and Poland had a lot of trouble in this aspect of the game, so we easily won the first set. In next two sets, Poland got too close. We could have finished the game earlier, but in the end we won 3:0, so it’s a good start,’ – said the University of Regensburg coach, Christian Hurler.
‘We did not start good. We were sleepy, and the opponent had a good serve. We started to show our game in the third set, but I know we can play better. We have a very difficult group. We have another game tomorrow and we will see what happens,’ – said Marcin Gorecki, head coach of Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences volleyball team.
In the next round, the University of Regensburg will play against the team from University of Banja Luka, while Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences will try to beat the team from the University of Belgrade.
