Swedish women, Norwegian men take gold at U19 NEVZA Championships

Ikast, Denmark, October 20, 2014.  Sweden’s women and Norway’s men celebrated victorious at the 2014 U19 NEVZA Championships, held in Ikast, Denmark, last week.  Each of these two national teams set a new record for number of titles in the history of the respective competition.  For the Swedish U19 girls this is the sixth gold medal, while the Norwegian U19 boys triumph as zonal champions for the fifth time.

The first day was a tough day for the teams and the organization.  The teams had to play two matches each.  So all together 12 matches had to find their winners, with the first ones starting at 09:00 and the last one finishing at 22:15.  On the women’s side, Sweden and host Denmark secured the first places in their respective pools with two straight-set victories each.  In the men’s competition, the Swedish team was joined by England as pool winners.  All these four squads qualified directly for the second day’s semifinals, while the others had to play quarterfinals in the morning to determine who else would be battling for the medals.

Eventually, Sweden and Norway made it to the women’s final after 3:0 over England and 3:2 (17-15 in the tie-breaker set!) over Denmark, respectively, in the semis.  On the men’s side, Norway defeated Sweden by 3:1 in one of the semifinals and Denmark matched this result against England in the other.

The third day featured the three placement matches in each of the two gender’s tournaments.  In the women’s final Sweden and Norway gave each other a good and intense fight, ending up in a very close 3:1 victory for Sweden after 25-23 in the fourth set.  In the first match of the day, Iceland took the fifth place after a 3:1 win over the Faroe Islands.  In the fight for the bronze, England put a lot of pressure on the Danish team, but the victory went to the home heroines, who pulled away a 3:0 win.

The men’s final between Norway and Denmark was a very tight match from the start with Denmark winning the first set by 26-24.  After that Norway pulled forward and closed the match at 3:1 after 25-19 in the fourth set.  Sweden took the bronze by managing a 3:0 victory over England.  Iceland finished fifth after a 3:1 win against the Faroe Islands.

Final ranking - U19 women:

1. Sweden

2. Norway

3. Denmark

4. England

5. Iceland

6. Faroe Islands

MVP - U19 women: Isabell Haak (SWE)

Dream Team - U19 women:

Setter: Nikoline Mogensen (DEN)

Opposite: Isabell Haak (SWE)

Wing spiker: Susann Bech (NOR)

Wing spiker: Anna Haak (SWE)

Middle blocker: Diana Lundvall (SWE)

Middle blocker: Kjersti Norveel (NOR)

Libero: Hanna Remme-Larsen (SWE)

Final Ranking - U19 men:

1. Norway

2. Denmark

3. Sweden

4. England

5. Iceland

6. Faroe Islands

MVP - U19 men: Nathan Fullerton (ENG)

Dream Team - U19 men:

Setter: Henrik Aase Hole (NOR)

Opposite: Jacob Link (SWE)

Wing spiker: Oscar Mollgaard (DEN)

Wing spiker: Cameron Carrington (ENG)

Middle blocker: Nathan Fullerton (ENG)

Middle blocker: Sverre G. Flaskjer (NOR)

Libero: Aleksander Sorlie Sorum (NOR)

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