Eleven teams will compete at this year’s MEVZA tournament

ZWETTL – Eleven teams will compete at this year’s MEVZA tournament: three from Croatia (Mladost, Ribola Kaštela und Mursa Osijek), three from Slovenia Slowenien (ACH Volley Ljubljana, Calcit Kamnik und Merkur Maribor), two from Slovakia (Reiker UJS Komarno und TJ Spartak Myjava) and three from Austria (AICH Dob, Union Raiffeisen Waldviertel und VCA Amstetten).

Union Raiffeisen Waldviertel is currently ranked 7th with 6 points from 4 games, while Myjava, their first opponent, is ranked 9th as they have 6 points from five games.

The Slovaks performed from the start and were able to take the lead 6:12. However, the Austrians found their way back and caught up 13:15, until they evened out at 16:16. The Austrians managed to take the lead for the first time at 19:18 but could not extend their lead. Both teams kept fighting, 23:23, the game became more tense, 25:25. Mayjava scored, but URW’s side-out game was strong until a monster-block ended the game, the final score being 28:26 in favor for the Austrians.

The start of the second set was not at eye level. The Slovaks had a rocket start which helped them take the lead by 4 points, 2:6, and they continued their streak until 2:9. Myjava stayed strong until Waldviertel took their first time-out at 8:16. Waldviertel was not able to find their rhythm and get back in the game. Too many unforced errors lead to the final score: 17:25 for the Slovak team.

The Slovak players have definitely found their flow and kept scoring in the third set as well, 2:5. The great performance of the Slovak team forced the Austrian coach Zdenek Smejkal to take his second time-out at 7:14. The third set was pretty clear, it ended 16:25 for the Slovak guests.

The Austrian crowd was hoping for a turn-around in the 4th set. The Slovaks started in medias res again and took the lead, 0:5. The players from URW were willing to put up a fight and managed to even out from time to time. In the end, it was not enough to stop the Slovak flow; the guests won the 4th set 20:25.

“It just wasn’t our day, we made so many service mistakes. We wanted to build up pressure with the service, but we didn’t succeed and therefore put pressure on ourselves. We couldn’t play in an easy-going way and just wanted too much. Tomorrow we’re going to prepare ourselves well for the match on Thursday and compensate for today’s shortcoming”, said Kyrylo Klochko, player of URW.

“It was a tough game in Waldviertel, because the fans are just great. We did a very good job and put into practice our strategy very well. I’m glad we scored the victory. Now we need to get prepared for the challenging match against Osijek”, said Martus Sima, player of Spartak Myjava.