The domestic volleyball championship
just ended in Romania with the country’s cup finals held in Pitesti last
weekend. The winner was CSM Lugoj, which won the trophy for the first time in
the club’s history. Lugoj outperformed CSM Targoviste 3-1 on Sunday and also
secured a 3-2 win against the defending champions Volleyball Alba Blaj in the semis
on Sunday. It was a very good season for the side in Lugoj, which secured the
country’s cup and supercup trophies and also played in the finals of the
Challenge Cup. Dan Brudiu, president of CSM Lugoj told us more on these
performances.
Dan Brudiu: We had
an extraordinarily difficult match in autumn, when we eliminated the
representative of Turkey, a first for a Romanian volleyball side. As you may
know, Turkey, Italy, Russia and Poland are the countries with the best
volleyball sides in Europe. And so is Serbia. So, the match against the
representative of Turkey was a crucial stage in our European performance. We also
managed to outperform the vice-champions of Portugal, Kairos Ponta Delgada, and
two extremely strong sides, Beveren of Belgium, a former CEV Cup winner, and particularly
Jedinstvo Stara Pazova, the incumbent champions of Serbia, which we managed to
defeat in the semis. The finals against Chieri was a real slice and it was an
honour to put up such a great performance in front of more than 4000 fans in
Turin. Like I said it was a great opportunity of putting up such a high-quality
show.
Romania’s men volleyball side is presently in
a full training campaign in Brasov, central Romania in an attempt to get in
good shape for their Golden League matches. They will have their first away match
against Portugal on May 27. They will take on Denmark in an away match on 31
May and on Turkey four days later. Romania will play their last three games at
home, in Brasov, on 10 June against Turkey, four days later against Denmark and
against Portugal on 18 June.
(bill)