The new season of the Baltic League started in the guise of the Latvian Super Cup last weekend. In the first two games in the Baltic League, Estonian clubs played each other. The teams of “Selver/TalTech” and “Barrus Voru VK” were successful, beating “Tartu Bigbank” and “Parnu VK” respectively with the same result (3:1).
Meanwhile, two Latvian teams focused on the Super Cup last weekend. It has already been reported that during the game the volleyball players of “Ezerzeme”/DU were behind (1:2) against the “RTU/Robežsardze/Jūrmala” team, winners of the previous year’s Super Cup, but in the end managed to win in five sets – 3:2.
National champion “Ezerzeme”/DU is no longer playing its previous “libero” Artjoms Petrovs, lifter Edvins Viguls and diagonal position player Andris Shiryakovs, while central blocker Ilya Makarovs, who got a Hungarian passport, has added to the team’s ranks this season. Meanwhile, Olegs Klopovs, who continues his career in France, and Jēkabs Dzenis, who will try his hand at playing in Austria, as well as Roberts Kļaviņš and former team captain Gatis Slavēns, who have ended their professional careers, are no longer playing in Jurmala’s shirt. The Jurmala shirt will be worn by the above-mentioned Viguls this season.
In the meantime, “Jēkabpils Lūši” will appear to a wider audience in Jūrmala this evening. As the team’s head coach Mārcis Obrumans admitted in a conversation with the Sportacentrs.com portal, the team is ready for the season, but just like the capital of Latvia, the “construction” of the “Jēkabpils Lūši” team continues. “The team building process is long and continuous,” says Obrumans, the head coach of the Jēkabpilians. The team started preparing for the season already at the beginning of August with almost a full squad. Before the season, the team played three test matches with the Latvian champions, winning two.
Edgars Kalnozols and Andrijs Chmirovs have left the team, but Jānis Medenis and Eduards StieĶelis have joined. “Both can play both in second pace and diagonal positions. Medenis is well known to everyone, Stigilis is physically very impressive, good material. Both like fast game, need to work. The team also has Armands Āboliņš, who does not fully train with the team, he will only join us for the games.”
Asked about his goals for the season, Obruman is brief: “The highest! In Latvia we want to fight for the title, in the Baltic League it is clear that we want to enter the top four, but we have to see what the Estonians will be like.”
In addition to the three Latvian clubs, this season we will also see the “Amber Volley” team from Lithuania led by the former player of the Latvian volleyball team Austras Stāls, as well as the four Estonian teams mentioned above. Within the framework of the main tournament (until February 18), the teams will play a three-round tournament, followed by the 1/4 final matches and the “Final 4” tournament, which is planned for the beginning of March.
Among Latvian players, Toms Švans, Kārlis Uģis Ābelītis (Pērnava), Ralfs Ozoliņš (Amber Volley) and Andris Širjakovs (Tartu Bigbank) will play in other Baltic League teams this season.
RTU / Border Guard / Jūrmala – Jēkabpils lynx live broadcast from 18:00:
2023-10-07 06:49:00
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