Sound build-up for national team

The Malta Volleyball Association will host a qualification round from the men's European Championship at the Cottonera Sports Complex between June 6 and 8.

The Maltese team will be playing against Cyprus, Scotland and Iceland. The national squad, coached by Jovan Vukalovic, has been training hard over the past months ahead of the qualifiers.

An association statement said the morale is high among the players following a week-long training camp in Salerno .

In Italy, the national team played a number of friendly games against Serie B and Serie C teams and obtained some encouraging results.

On paper, the strongest team in the group are Cyprus. They play against Malta on June 7.

Maltese official Antonello Calleja will be among the international referees in charge of the matches next week. Other referees will come from Cyprus, Scotland, Iceland and Switzerland.

Tournament schedule

June 6: 4.30 p.m. Scotland vs Cyprus; 7 p.m. Iceland vs Malta.

June 7: 4.30 p.m. Cyprus vs Malta; 7 p.m. Iceland vs Scotland.

June 8: 3.30 p.m. Cyprus vs Iceland; 6 p.m. Malta vs Scotland.

Maltese girls third

A qualification round from the women's European Championship was also played at the Cottonera Sports Complex a few weeks ago with the participation of teams from Cyprus, Iceland, San Marino and Malta.

The Maltese girls got off to a bad start as they were beaten in straight sets by San Marino. They looked pretty nervous and unable to react to San Marino's tactics.

The second match was a different story though as the locals regrouped to beat Iceland 3-1.

Malta took the first set 25-20 but lost the second 21-25. The Maltese, inspired by the powerful spikes of captain Alison Borg Hayman, hit back and won the third set 25-23 after trailing for most of the time.

The final set was totally in the hosts' favour. They closed the set and the game 25-17.

Against Cyprus, the locals did their best but only managed to trouble their more experienced opponents during parts of the game. In the end, Cyprus proved too strong and won 3-0.

In the final classification, Malta finished third behind Cyprus, the group winners, and San Marino.