Antalya, Turkey, May 16, 2014.  Austria survived a three-set battle to win one of the two direct clashes between top-seeded teams in pool play at the men’s 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final to book a spot in the second elimination round tomorrow.  The teams of Ukraine, Norway, Russia, Poland and Germany also topped their pools to move directly to the crucial last step of qualification for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

Pool F proved to be the toughest one of the six.  The only two three-set matches on Friday’s program occurred between teams from this pool.  In the first match Lithuania’s Edvinas Vaskelis / Matas Navickas upset the sixth-seeded Czechs Tomas Cermak / Jiri Kraffer with a 2:1 (21-19, 18-21, 15-9) victory, but then lost to seventh-seeded Austrians Paul Buchegger / Moritz Bernd Pristauz-Telsnigg by a landslide – 0:2 (9-21, 18-21).  When the two top seeds locked horns in the last match of the pool, they staged a 55-minute battle, the longest game of the day, which ended in favor of the Austrians – 2:1 (21-14, 16-21, 15-10).

“The first game of today was easy for us because our opponent was not that tall and we locked too many balls,” Paul Buchegger commented.  “In the second game we played really well.  We do not know who we will be playing tomorrow, but there are many good teams so it will be a difficult game.  We know most of the teams here from previous tournaments.  I believe we can win and qualify for the Youth Olympics.”

“We played really well today, except in the second set of the second match,” Moritz Bernd Pristauz-Telsnigg agreed.  “I am satisfied with the results.  Tomorrow’s game will be difficult for us, but we will stay focused for it is the last decisive game and we definitely want to go to China.”

The other five winners quite clearly dominated their pools and made it through to the second round without losing any sets.  Ukraine’s Oleh Plotnytskyi / Illia Kovalov, seeded #1, scored victories over Finland and Cyprus to top Pool A.  Second-seeded Latvians Raimonds Linins / Karlis Kaulins were upset by both opponents in Pool B, which allowed Norway’s Anders Berntsen Mol / Mathias Berntsen to emerge as pool winners.  In Pool C, the 2013 U18 European champions Oleg Stoyanovskiy / Artem Yarzutkin  from Russia demonstrated their superiority over the teams of Bulgaria and Slovakia.  There was no surprise in Pool D either.  Poland’s Dominik Kmiecik / Jakub Macura shut out both Spain and Turkey.  Pool D featured the other clash between pool winners from last year’s zonal phase, but Germany’s Niklas Rudolf / Eric Stadie were very convincing in beating Italy’s Manuel Alfieri / Paolo Di Silvestre by 2:0 (21-14, 21-14) following a straight-set win over Turkey’s second duo.

Unfortunately for the home fans, the two men’s and two women’s duos of Turkey did not succeed in winning any sets in their pool matches, but are certainly hoping to make amends in the first elimination round.

“We had problems in the pool games because of our lack of experience,” Sencer Urer from Turkey’s first team explained.  “If we decrease our unforced errors we can be better.  Our goal to go to China is still alive.  We can win both matches tomorrow.”

His partner Berkecan Bildircin agreed with him:  “We are a new team so that makes everything harder for us.  We will be better in time.  We want to display a much better performance in the following matches and qualify for the 2014 Youth Olympics.”