PÄRNU VK crowned Estonian champions after a four-year break
News from the National Federations
Tallinn, Estonia, April 23, 2019. The most successful coach in Estonia, Avo Keel led PÄRNU VK to their eleventh national championship title despite a terrible start to the season. Their last such accolade came in 2015. In the championship series, PÄRNU VK beat Bigbank TARTU 4:0, winning the first two games by 3-1 and the last two at the tiebreak.
For coach Keel it was his 8th Estonian national championship title; moreover, he has 8 Cup titles and 7 gold medals from the Baltic League (Credit24 Champions League) to his name. “This one feels special and I will remember it for sure because never before have I changed my ideas so radically regarding what we do. The beginning of the season was difficult as after six games we had only two wins. I felt if we wanted a title, it would only happen if we did not have to play a series, like in a Cup game or Credit24 Champions League Final Four. However, at one point near the end of the season, I understood that the team had changed completely and we had a bigger chance to succeed in a series. And I was right, we did not lose a game since the start of the quarterfinals,” said Keel, whose team beat titleholders SAAREMAA VC in the semis 3:0, thus surprising many people.
Coach Keel could count on all his main players during the final series, with one of the key ones being his older son Martti Keel. The setter is also the captain of PÄRNU VK and he was the one who kept the group together mentally when hard moments appeared. Martti Keel had a good feeling and chemistry with the 21-year-old Brazilian opposite Chizoba Neves Atu. He was on fire during the play-offs, scoring 46 points (!) in the second semi-final against SAAREMAA VC. In the finals, he scored 34, 24, 31 and 26 points respectively.
Andrei Ojamets, head coach of Bigbank TARTU: “In the first two games we could not get going, whilst the third and fourth games were better. In the end, it seems like they wanted it a bit more, but we can walk out of this series with our heads held high as we gave it all we had. In the end, all the titles at stake this season went to three different clubs – SAAREMAA VC won the Cup finals, we won the Credit24 Champions League and now PÄRNU VK are the national champions. I think this shows that Estonian Volleyball has great depth and competitiveness.”
Information from www.cev.eu
Posted in International on Apr 24, 2019
