Baden, Austria, June 17, 2017. The semifinal line-up at the women’s 2017 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship presented by SPORT.LAND.NÖ is now complete with pairs from Romania, Russia, Germany and Switzerland surviving for Sunday’s medal distribution matches.
Two of these teams, Svetlana Kholomina and Nadezda Makroguzova from Russia and Dunja Gerson and Esmée Böbner from Switzerland, have made it this far without losing any sets along the way, but the Swiss girls are particularly happy about it, because, in their last match on Saturday, they managed to dethrone the 2016 champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka from Latvia with a dramatic 2-0 (21-19, 22-20) shutout. Not only that - this is the first tournament Gerson and Böbner play as a team and they have found each other to be quite a perfect match.
“It is pretty cool! We never expected to beat the current champions, so we are really happy and excited,” an elated Gerson said after the victory. “Before the European Championship we had only five practices together, but now we find each other with harmony on the court.”
Before defeating the Latvians, earlier on Saturday Gerson and Böbner mastered their first elimination victory a 2-0 (22-20, 21-12) over France’s Aline Chamereau and Lézana Placette. At 11:00 local time on Sunday, the fans at centre court will see a semifinal clash between the Swiss duo and the other pair with an impeccable record so far, the Russians.
“We could play our game and we could beat all the teams 2-0, so we are really happy to be unbeaten for now,” Böbner added. “Tomorrow’s semifinal is going to be a tough match, but if we play our game and do our good service and all the stuff we can do, I think we can win.”
Kholomina and Makroguzova got to this semifinal after a 2-0 (23-21, 21-10) win against Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya and Viktoryia Siakretava from Belarus, followed by a 2-0 (21-15, 21-15) victory over Czechs Tereza Kotlasova and Daniela Resova.
In the earlier semifinal on Sunday, at 10 o’clock, the 17th-seeded Romanians Adriana-Maria Matei and Beata Vaida will face fourth-seeded Germans Lisa Arnholdt and Leonie Welsch.
Arnholdt is in fact the only surviving Thessaloniki 2016 medallist in the semifinals of this year’s edition of #EuroBeachVolleyU22. On Saturday, last year’s bronze medal winner and her current partner achieved a 2-1 (16-21, 21-17, 15-10) comeback victory over Ukraine’s Viktoria Lysytsia and Kateryna Dashevska and a 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) shutout of fifth-seeded Lithuanians Urte Andriukaityte and Irina Zobnina.
Matei and Vaida survived two tie-breaker sets to continue to chase their medal dream in Baden. The Romanians went through a 2-1 (21-12, 19-21, 15-7) win against Lithuania’s Ieva Vasiliauskaite and Gerda Grudzinskaite and a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-11) victory over Germany’s Lisa-Sophie Kotzan and Leonie Klinke.
All matches on Sunday are scheduled for live streaming on LAOLA1.tv.
Engage with the U22 European Championship on social media by using the competition’s official hashtag #EuroBeachVolleyU22.
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