Baden, Austria, June 15, 2019. The knockout phase at the CEV U18 Beach Volleyball European Championship sponsored by SPORT.LAND.NÖ started on Saturday with players aiming for a spot in the semi-finals. On Saturday, the sultriest day in Baden, cloudy and with temperatures up to 35°C, the teams placed second and third in their pools were fighting for making the round of 16, while the pool winners already had a spot there. Russia and Spain eventually dominated the men’s and women’s elimination phase.

Anna Chechelnytska/Daria Romaniuk (UKR), Mariia Bocharova/Elizaveta Gubina (RUS), Marketa Svozilova/Eliska Tezzele (CZE) and Tania Moreno/Ana Vergara (ESP) eventually claimed a spot in the women's semis. Each team won their quarterfinal clearly, only the Ukrainian duo had a three-set fight. Tania Moreno Matveeva and Ana Vergara reached the semifinal with a dominant performance against Hungary. “We had a very stable side-out and this was our goal being constant during the whole game. Our opponent made more mistakes than us and we benefited from it,” the Spanish girls commented after the match.

Ivan Osipov/Anatolii Vasilenko (RUS), Rok Mozic/Rok Bracko (SLO), Leon Meier/Lui Wüst (GER) and Alejandro Yuste/Antonio Saucedo (ESP) played strong Beach Volleyball and made it into the men's semifinals. Spain showed power on the court and beat the Austrians. “It was a fantastic game! We played very well, we trained a lot during the year, and now we are very happy,” Yuste said. “We improved our performance from game to game, incredible that we can play the semi-final tomorrow,” his partner added.


Young Austrians aspire to wow crowds just like the fan favourites Doppler/Horst.

Alexander Horst, Austria’s top defense player came directly from Warsaw to support Austria’s rising stars. Germany and the Netherlands had their supporters in the crowd as well, which made the Austrian fans even more raucous. Nevertheless, during the matches of local rising stars Noel Krassnig/Matthias Glatz, the home crowd showed all of its energy.