In the first match of the tournament, the Lithuanians lost 0:3 (25:27, 15:25, 10:25) to the Greek team, which secured its second consecutive victory and became the winner of the first tournament.
In the European ranking, the Greeks are in 18th place, while the Lithuanian national team, which returned to the ranking just a week ago, is 32nd.
Nevertheless, the Lithuanian volleyball players, coached by Mateusz Zarczynski, started the match perfectly – leading for a long time in the first set, the Lithuanians had three opportunities to win the set by a point. However, they failed to do so, and the Greek team avoided an unexpected start to the match.
At the beginning of the second set, the Lithuanians also resisted the favorites, but later the Greeks gained momentum and established a double-digit lead. The Greek players, who play in strong European clubs, then maintained control of the game until the end of the set.
In the third set, the Greek advantage began to become apparent from the very beginning, and substitute players got more playing time in the Lithuanian team. For them, as for the entire young Lithuanian team, this is a wonderful experience.
For the Lithuanian national team, captain Monika Šalkutė scored 11 points, Martyna Paukštytė 10, Barbora Rakauskaitė 7, Rūta Staniulytė 5, Anastasija Jesipenko 4, Vilūnė Rauluševičiūtė 3, and Vaiva Valionytė, Arina Petuchova, and Neringa Kačinaitė each scored 1. Rusnė Rutkauskaitė played excellently in the libero position, and Karolina Pravdinskaitė in the setter position. Karina Vilkicka entered the court in all three sets, and the young Vaiva Gasiūnaitė and Rusnė Radavičiūtė also received their European League baptism.
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For the Greek national team, Martha Anthouli and Eirini Chatziefstratiadou each scored 16 points.
In the first match, the Greek volleyball players defeated Croatia 3:1.
On Sunday, the Lithuanian national team will play its second European League match against the Croatians. The Croatians are ranked 20th in the European ranking.
In the tournament in Latvia, the host Latvians started with a dramatic loss – they lost 2:3 (25:23, 25:20, 18:25, 20:25, 14:16) to the Romanian team. The first referee of this match was Lithuanian Sergejus Rodinas.
On June 12-13, the Lithuanian volleyball players will visit Sweden, where they will meet the teams from that country and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on June 19-21, the Lithuanian national team will play in Šiauliai Arena, where they will host the teams from Portugal and Romania.
A total of 24 teams from the Old Continent compete in the CEV European League. After summing up the results of all groups, the final ranking of the teams will be determined, and the four strongest national teams will participate in the final stage.
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