Anastasia Vorotnikova and Oksana Vakulenko: May the best team win! 08.07.2010
The players of Kuban State University of Physical Education, Sport and Tourism shared opinion on their performance in Kazan, challenges in the game, goals and plans for the season
Kuban State University representatives Anastasia Vorotnikova and Oksana Vakulenko are posting yet another win for a few days in a row. They have faced the Polish and Portuguese volleyball players today. The Russian team won two straight sets in each game.
- Can you sum up the results of your yesterday’s and today’s performance? Are you content or disappointed?
Anastasia: Fortune favors us so far, we ousted the German team with a 2-1 win, then we defeated Poland with the same score by a narrow margin. And we advanced to playoff!
Oksana: We’ve knocked off the teams from France and Portugal. I think we’ve just had more energy than them. Both the tandems have a good defense and play head-to-head.
- What are your plans for the coming season?
Anastasia: We’ve made the first step. Our University placed fifth and eighth at the Russian Championship this weekend. In terms of the game level the Russian tournament was higher than the current European Championship. The result we’ve achieved is OK, we are happy with it.
Oksana: We are leaving for Kaliningrad and we are having the next round in Anapa where the Russian final will be held. We need to collect a great deal of points in order to advance to the final. We hope that we will exercise leadership and show our best play.
- Who do you support at the Championship?
Anastasia: First of all we are fans of our men’s team Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Artyom Kucherenko. We are feeling very nervous for them and support them so much. I think that their performance at the Championship is great and they have a good chance to top the tournament.
Oksana: We also like the teams from Kazan, Moscow and Turkey.
Anastasia: We would like to thank particularly our fans. It’d great that they support us, it’s very helpful.
- Did you have any time after your matches this week to have a walk, to go out somewhere?
Oksana: Yes, we did, Kazan is a beautiful city, we plan to go to a nightclub some of these days. As a matter of fact we give all our free time to volleyball: we either train or watch our rivals play or we play ourselves.
- What would you wish on the tournament entrants?
Anastasia: Folks, don’t give importance to the result of the game – just show a decent play! May the best team win!
Igor Botalov, special correspondent of press-center
VII European Universities Beach Volleyball Championship
