After a 24-year break, Indrė Sorokaitė has settled in Kaunas for a longer period.
When she went to Italy to improve at the age of 14, even as a promising volleyball player, she did not suspect that she would stay in the volleyball elite for so long.
The longest part of I. Sorokaitė’s career was spent in Italian clubs, with several of them achieving the highest achievements – in 2007 and 2009 she triumphed in the CEV Champions League with the Bergamo team, and with Conegliano’s “Imoco Volley” she won the World Club Championship Cup (2019).
During her career, she also represented clubs from Azerbaijan, Japan, Indonesia, and the USA.
In 2013, after receiving an invitation to accept Italian citizenship, she did so. The Kaunas native represented Italy in international competitions, including the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
However, now, after so many years representing foreign clubs and the Italian national team, the 38-year-old, 185 cm tall volleyball player accepted the invitation from the “Kaunas-VDU” club to join the Baltic and Lithuanian champions after the season with the “LOVB Madison” (USA) team.
“The decision to stay longer in Kaunas was also influenced by the fact that my volleyball academy is taking a big step forward with a new arena and new activities,” I. Sorokaitė told 15min on Tuesday. “So I decided to stay for the whole season. Of course, it is important for me to pass on my experience both on and off the court. Volleyball values are important to me, and I have devoted a lot of time to youth sports myself.
So far, my body obeys me, which is why I enjoy playing at this age, because the technique is already polished and refined like a diamond, and now I can pass on the knowledge gained during my career in Kaunas.”
Lithuanian women’s volleyball is experiencing a revival year, and now the Kaunas club led by Vidas Makauskas, revived by victories in the European League, is also raising its head, preparing for the international Challenge Cup tournament.
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“Indrė’s joining our club can be compared to Jonas Valančiūnas joining Žalgiris. Having a player of such a level on our team is an exceptional opportunity. Her experience, accumulated at the highest international level, will be invaluable to the entire team, especially the young players,” said Vidas Makauskas, head of “Kaunas-VDU”.
“So far, we have not passed the second qualifying stage in history, so we want to get into the tournament’s round of sixteen. First, we face opponents from Spain, then from a Greek island – I believe in our team, we can achieve our goals,” said I. Sorokaitė.
She did not hide that she cares more about the overall long-term growth of women’s volleyball in the country than individual results.
“Now the Lithuanian national teams are being formed, they are growing. Europe is already starting to hear about us. I want it to be like a fairy tale – that children and youth believe and have an example that from a volleyball club you can step into national teams, see more of the world.
This summer, the newly formed women’s national team opened doors to Europe, most of the team are young players, some of them from “Kaunas-VDU”. This is pleasant, and now we can move on to club results.
Of course, people come to watch not just one player, but a cohesive team. We want to create a good atmosphere, a winner’s mentality. The team has already won Lithuanian and Baltic championships, and I have always valued European competitions highly; I want Lithuania to be seen not only as a national team but also from the club system. Playing in the Challenge Cup is a serious step forward.”
Is the return to Lithuania a long-term life decision?
The volleyball player, whose brother Paulius Sorokas has been playing professional basketball in Italy for eleven years (he extended his contract with Bologna’s “Fortitudo”), has not yet made a final decision.
The volleyball player, who spent most of her career playing in Italy, played last season in the USA but moved her personal life to a home near Paris a year ago.
“I was between Paris and Kaunas, and now I will be in Kaunas for a long time, but I have a home near Paris,” the volleyball player said. “Even a year (in Kaunas) is a long time for me. I used to return to Lithuania as much as the seasons abroad allowed. This time I decided to stay for the whole season and then see how everything unfolds. Although I am Lithuanian, I also have secular views. We will see how I manage to fit in. Of course, seeing our young volleyball rapidly rising, I want to do something more.
Lithuania is my homeland, I feel good here, like a fish in water. But we will also see how Lithuania receives me after so many years.”
In recent years, I. Sorokaitė usually spent one or two months in Lithuania, where she founded her own volleyball academy five years ago.
Initially investing about 200 thousand euros of her own funds, she expressed doubts a couple of years ago about how the academy would manage to sustain itself, but now new winds are blowing, and they inspire I. Sorokaitė.
“The most important fact is that we are moving to a new arena. For a long time, the main obstacle to the development of our academy was the quality of conditions. Everything gradually starts from a nicer locker room, from a good floor, which is important for young players’ muscles, I know this from my own experience because I have been to many halls. There is always a greater desire to train in better conditions.
Next month we should start activities in the new arena, which will have six volleyball courts, there will be exercise machines and a proper locker room. We found an investor interested in both sports and the overall philosophy,” said I. Sorokaitė. “Now a coach from Italy has come to my academy, who will coordinate the activities of all coaches, and in the future, there will be one or two more coaches from abroad who will guarantee the first teams to achieve higher playing quality and goals. After some years, we would like the academy’s trainees to form the core of the women’s club and also the Lithuanian women’s national team.”
She promised to introduce investors in the future who are finishing setting up a modern building in Kaunas, which will accommodate two ambitious sports organizations.
I. Sorokaitė’s volleyball academy will be located together with Kęstutis Navickas’s badminton academy, which will open 14 badminton courts in one space.
“We will be separated only by a movable wall. Kęstutis’s academy has more experience; he himself is a successful coach of the French national team. Although our sports are different, our values coincide, so we both hope that great people will grow from the youth,” said the volleyball player.
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A few years ago, she hinted at the ambition to run for the presidency of the Lithuanian Volleyball Federation in the future.
However, last year two men competed in the elections: Darius Čerka was re-elected for a third term in May 2025, defeating Simas Paulikas 12:9, who after the elections, along with his wife, Olympic beach volleyball player Monika Paulikienė, had public complaints about the federation’s funding.
I. Sorokaitė believes that her time to enter the sports politics scene will come.
“At that time (last year during the elections), I was still a player, still playing in America. I was interested in listening to how sports politics works in the elections, but I understand that I still have to gain knowledge, learn to enter Lithuanian culture more smoothly, delve more into not only indoor but also beach volleyball nuances and organization.
I won’t hide it, I am really very ambitious. I have many contacts at the European level, but it takes time to fill the experience gained on the court with management and sports politics knowledge.
Now even staying in Lithuania will be very useful for me. Although I stay here for a month or two, understanding all the questions, commas – it will be very useful for me. In the future? Why not. I think I have contributed a lot to Lithuanian national teams, but I am still young, we will see how I improve in a couple of years.
Appetite comes with eating. In the future, it will be better to see whether I could help more in the highest federation positions or by strengthening the club so that our volleyball continues to grow.”
