September 5, 2009. On day 4 of the 2009 CEV Men’s European Championships, Slovenia, Estonia, the Czech Republic as well as Turkey booked their ticket home as 4th ranked teams in their Pools. The other twelve squads move on to the Playoff Round, which will take place from Tuesday to Thursday in Istanbul and Izmir. In their last game of the tournament Greeks played against last ranked Slovenia. Even when the Slovenians dominated, the Greeks played great at the end of each set and deservedly celebrated finishing first in Pool C.
William Morgan and volleyball history
On February 9, 1895, in Holyoke, Massachusetts (USA), William G Morgan, a YMCA physical education director, created a new game called Mintonette as a pastime to be played preferably indoors and by any number of players. The game took some of its characteristics from tennis and handball. Another indoor sport, basketball, was catching on in the area, having been invented just ten miles (sixteen kilometers) away in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, only four years before. Mintonette was designed to be an indoor sport less rough than basketball for older members of the YMCA, while still requiring a bit of athletic effort.




