It promises to be a full house at the Hala Globus in Lublin where tomorrow and Sunday the spotlight will be on the third edition of the “Bogdanka Volley Cup”.
Four thousand tickets pulverized by fans to attend the prestigious international tournament named after Tomasz Wójtowicz, Polish volleyball player, world champion in ’74 and Olympic champion two years later, who passed away two years ago following a long illness. The Block Devils are participating in the tournament for the first time and will take the field in the first semi-final, scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 7 September at 5pm with the hosts Lublin, followed by the second semi-final between Jastrzębski Węgiel and Asseco Resovia.
The boys led by Angelo Lorenzetti landed in Warsaw and then headed to Lublin where, in the afternoon, they trained on the Polish playing facility, followed by a session in the gym under the orders of athletic trainer Sebastian Carotti.
«The home team is a strong team: they have our former player Wilfredo Leon, and the team is certainly not a “no name”, they have many international players, they finished this season in fifth place in the PlusLiga and it is certainly an excellent result for this club new because they started in 2013! It will definitely be a great match!”
Polish spiker Kamil Semeniuk, who this year wears the Sir Susa Vim Perugia shirt for the third consecutive season, describes the dangers of tomorrow’s match: a player who clearly knows the Polish championship very well, having always played in his homeland, since his debut in MMKS Kedzierzyn-Kozle U2. The following year, in the 2015-2016 season, he made the big leap to the Polish top flight with Zaksa, which made his professional career take off.
«The arena is beautiful – adds the Polish hammer – even if this is still the start of the season and we are not yet in full shape, in my opinion we are all ready to play tomorrow. Today we had a long trip, but we are ready and looking forward to tomorrow.”
The Block Devils will carry out the pre-match refinement from 10 to 11 am and in the afternoon, the Hala Globus will open its doors to the public for the two semi-finals which will start at 5 pm.
The afternoon of Sunday 8 September will open at 3.30pm with the match to assign third place and the final is scheduled for 6pm.
In the evening, the rooftop of the Hotel Arche in Lublin hosted the pre-event press conference, which was attended by a top player from each team, together with the highest authorities of the Region and the city of Lublin.
