On August 12–16, at the Old Continent championships in Stare Jablonki (Poland), Lithuania will be represented by Monika Paulikienė and Ainė Raupelytė, Ieva Dumbauskaitė and Gerda Grudzinskaitė, and Erika Kliokmanaitė and Ieva Vasiliauskaitė. All of them qualified for the tournament based on their CEV ranking.
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The duo of E.Kliokmanaitė and I.Vasiliauskaitė will play in the European Championship for the first time. Last year, Jekaterina Saulė and Danielė Kvedaraitė, who took ninth place in the European Championships, did not qualify for the championship this time.
This year’s European Championships will also mark the start of qualifications for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. European champions (men and women) will earn the first tickets to the Olympic Games for their countries.
In total, 32 men’s and 32 women’s teams will compete in the European Championship.
25 women’s teams qualified for the championship based on ranking, and four spots were allocated to the host Polish teams.
Two wild cards were also awarded, and one spot went to the winners of the CEV Nations Cup tournament. This year, Ukrainian women and Latvian men lifted the CEV Nations Cups.
On Friday, the draw for the European Championship was held in Warsaw (Poland), dividing the women’s teams into eight groups of four.
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M.Paulikienė and A.Raupelytė (Volleyball World ranking – 12), who achieved a record fourth position for Lithuania in the 2024 European Championship, are seeded seventh in this year’s tournament. Therefore, they immediately received the first seed in Group G.
The draw determined that M.Paulikienė and A.Raupelytė will play in the group with Swiss players Anouk Verge Depre and Zoe Verge Depre (11), Czech players Katerina Pavelkova and Anna Pavelkova (40), and Polish players Julia Kielak and Zuzanna Kudlik (136).
I.Dumbauskaitė and G.Grudzinskaitė (28) were drawn into Group B. Their opponents will be Dutch players Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon (6), French players Clemence Vieira and Aline Chamereau (15), and Polish players Patrycja Jundzill and Julia Jaroszczak (unranked).
I.Vasiliauskaitė and E.Kliokmanaitė (56) will play in Group C with Italian players Valentina Gottardi and Reka Orsi Toth (8), German players Linda Bock and Lea Sophie Kunst, and another German pair Melanie Paul and Louisa Lippmann.
These German players have recently played with different partners, which is why the world ranking includes the duos of L.Bock and L.Lippmann (20) and M.Paul and L.S.Kunst (33).
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In total, teams from 19 countries will compete in the European Championship in Poland.
The championship’s prize fund is 200 thousand euros.
