Baden, Austria, June 16, 2017. Baden survived an early morning rain shower scare, but the weather went from cloudy and humid to sunny and windy during the second competition day of the 2017 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship presented by SPORT.LAND.NÖ to present a challenge to the young talents from all over the continent competing for glory оn Austrian sand. The last leg of women’s pool play took place on Friday and the cut for Saturday’s elimination was made, with Germany placing two teams directly into the second elimination round.
In fact, a strict hierarchy was observed in each of the eight pools, with one team winning all their matches and making the eighthfinals unbeaten, one team defeating the other two, and one surviving in the competition with a single win in the pool.
In what was the most convincing victory at the tournament so far, 25th-seeded Lisa-Sophie Kotzan and Leonie Klinke from Germany handed England’s Anaya Evans and Yasmin Kaashoek a 2-0 (21-2, 21-8) shutout on centre court to finish on top of Pool H. Even after a landslide victory like this they gave deserved credit to all of their opponents in the pool.
“It was kind of a difficult group for us, because Finland, France and England were very good opponents. We are happy that we won all the games and we hope that tomorrow we will win again. So let’s see!” said Leonie Klinke after the match with England.
The other seven teams that won their pools and do not have to play in the first elimination round on Saturday morning are Poland’s Aleksandra Gromadowska and Martyna Kloda, Switzerland’s Dunja Gerson and Esmée Böbner, Germany’s Lisa Arnholdt and Leonie Welsch, Lithuania’s Urte Andriukaityte and Irina Zobnina, Latvia’s Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka and Russia’s Svetlana Kholomina and Nadezda Makroguzova, seeded second through seventh in that order, as well as 17th-seeded Adriana-Maria Matei and Beata Vaida from Romania.
The longest and probably the most interesting women’s match of the day was the battle for the second place in Pool G. The home fans at centre court once again rooted enthusiastically for Austria’s Dorina Klinger and Ronja Klinger, but after 47 minutes of exciting action, Spain’s María Belén Carro Márquez de Acuña and Clara Soler Alcocer managed to secure a dramatic 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-8) victory, pushing the Austrians down to the fourth place and out of the competition.
Still Austria’s home crowd following the women’s competition had something to cheer about. Their third duo, Julia Radl and Franziska Friedl, managed to make it to the next stage of the tournament after a 2-0 (21-10, 21-18) win against Bulgaria’s Yoana Nikolova and Simona Nikolova, placing them third in Pool F.
Saturday’s schedule covers the first three elimination rounds and at the end of the day the four semifinalists will be known.
All centre court matches on Saturday are scheduled for live streaming on LAOLA1.tv.
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