Faroese women claim historic victory on international stage
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Last night, the women’s national team of the Faroe Islands secured a historic 3-1 victory (25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22) in their home matchup with Georgia scheduled for the group stage of the CEV European Silver League 2023. The result accounts for the first victory of a Faroese national team in a CEV senior competition except for those run by the Small Countries Association (SCA), where Faroese teams have featured for many years already.
In early 2022, the Faroese Volleyball Association started implementing a new strategy aimed at bringing more visibility to Faroese Volleyball and further developing the sport across the archipelago. With only 55,000 inhabitants and around 2,000 active Volleyball players, the sport is already popular though it faces a tough competition from the likes of football and handball.
Part of this strategy was to participate in CEV competitions and thus teams of both genders were involved in the EuroVolley 2023 qualifiers organised in the summer of 2022 and they now feature in the 2023 Silver League. The teams will then again compete in next year’s EuroVolley qualifiers. As a part of this process, it is very likely that the club champions of both genders will register for participation in the CEV Challenge Cup later this year.
Cristian Imhoff“Since I took over as the head coach, I have been working on building up a team with a mix of a new generation of players and a few experienced ones. The task has also been to shape our own identity based on the fighting spirit of the Faroe Islands. We are on the way, there is still a long way to go, but we will manage.”
Head coach of the Faroese women's national team
Sofía Purkhús, outside spiker and captain: “Our team is not experienced in playing matches on this large stage and this is putting some additional pressure on us, but we were happy to show that we are having something to offer. It was important to get the taste of victory already now as this gives us more confidence for the upcoming matches. But most importantly I am happy that we as a team can be role models for children starting to play Volleyball in the Faroe Islands.”
Birgit Guttesen“It is a nice experience stepping up on this larger volleyball stage but being unexperienced on it we did not know what we would face. In the first match we suffered from a lack of matches together, but things went much better in this second match. I am now looking forward to the upcoming matches.”
Opposite hitter and top scorer in the match with Georgia (20 points)
Peter Holm, President of the Faroese Volleyball Association: “It is very important for us that we already can see some good results in the matches and for us this is more important than the result itself. This gives fuel to continue the path we have already started.”
After losing to Montenegro in the first leg and beating Georgia, the Faroese women will return to the court on June 4 when they host Portugal.
