Poland triumphed with the title at the CEV U16 Women’s Volleyball European Championship that was held in Albania and Kosovo and came to its conclusion over the weekend with the final four matches in Tirana. Turkiye settled for silver, while Italy celebrated bronze.
Poland finished Pool I runners-up in Tirana after winning six and losing one of their matches in the round-robin stage of the tournament. In the semifinals, they took on Czechia, who won Pool II in Pristina, also on a 6-1 win-loss record, and beat them in a 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-10) comeback. In the other semifinal, Pool II runners-up Turkiye, who went through the first stage on a 5-2 win-loss record, mounted a fantastic comeback from two sets down to claim a 3-2 (17-25, 17-25, 25-23, 25-19, 15-9) victory and hand Pool I winners Italy their first defeat of the competition.
In Sunday’s gold medal showdown (pictured in the main photo; source: cev.eu), Poland put together a 3-1 (25-22, 26-28, 25-22, 25-23) win over Turkiye to lift the continental trophy. Italy produced a 3-0 (25-16, 28-26, 25-13) sweep of the bronze medal match against Czechia.
Croatia, Spain, France, Greece, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovenia, Lithuania, Albania and Kosovo, in that order, lined up in the places from fifth to 16th in the final standings.
Poland’s 15-year-old outside hitter Aleksandra Wika was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Championship. The Dream Team was composed of setter Anna Prokesova (Czechia), opposite Elzbieta Czerwonka (Poland), outside hitters Zuzanna Lange (Poland) and Ecrin Selis Turkyasar (Turkiye), middle blockers Nejla Guzonjic (Turkiye) and Gabriela Jakubowska (Poland), and libero Kaila Simeonov (Italy).
2025 CEV U16 Women’s Volleyball European Championship: results, statistics and standings