• As already reported, in the return match of the quarter-finals “Ezerzeme”/DU “Barrus” https://sportacentrs.com/”Voru VK” won with 25:23, 28:30, 25:19 and 25:17 and made it to the “Final Four”, which will take place in the Estonian city of Tartu.
In the regular season, the Daugavpils team won third place with 34 points, while the Veru club (27) was sixth. “This season they ran after us all the time and at one point they were one point away. They have a very good team, including three Americans who are pretty good quality volleyball players,” says “Ezerzeme”/DU head coach Rihards Puķitis. “But after many years, this season we have only local players, and half of them are schoolchildren and students, and the other half don’t train every day because they work.”
At the semi-final stage, they had to win in two games, but they managed to beat this Estonian team 3-1 and 3-1. “I won’t say it’s the coach’s merit. These two victories are purely the players’ merit,” says the coach of the Daugavpils team. “In the second match, we needed to win at least two sets to advance. Emotionally, it was a very tough match. The first two sets turned out to be very tense. The decisive thing was the overall performance of our players, they really wanted to win and give everything.”
Daugavpils had never reached the “Final Four” before, not even close. “At the very beginning I played here myself, at the maximum we were like eighth against first place and there were no options,” admits the current coach and is happy about reaching the final four. “A very big event and something that has never happened in the history of the city, but you can’t stop there and say that we have already done everything.”
“Ezerzeme”/DU semi-final opponents were determined in Saturday’s late quarter-final. If the favorites “Selver”https://sportacentrs.com/”TalTech” would win the gold set, then we would have to play against them. However, in the golden set, last year’s players, who were last in the regular season, triumphed with 15:13, so “RTU Border Guard” https://sportacentrs.com/”Jūrmala” will face Daugavpils in the semi-finals.
• As already reported, in the return match of the quarter-finals “RTU Border Guard”https://sportacentrs.com/”Jūrmala” defeated SK “Jēkabpils Lūši” with 25:20, 25:15 and 25:16 and entered the semi-finals.
“The main thing was the right mood, so that we were not too confident after the first game. I wanted the players to be dressed and athletically fierce, because otherwise it is difficult to get up and show your best game and work with full dedication. I was afraid that we did not go out too calm and confident, ” admits the head coach of RTU Border Guard/Jūrmala Raymond Vilde. “We served better and received more stably, this time we were better in basically all elements.”
“The feeling is fantastic. We did our work quickly – as we had planned. Everything super! The opponents were a bit weaker, but we managed not to match them. This victory gives confidence in one’s abilities,” says the volleyball player of the winning team Patrick Pinka. “Our goal was to be in the Final Four. Now there are no options – we have to go for medals. We will train properly for a week, but then we will go to Tartu.”
On March 4, the semi-finals of the Baltic League will take place in Tartu – RTU Robežsardze/Jūrmala and Ezerzeme/DU, Tartu Bigbank and Parnu VK.
Resources used:
volejbols.lv
