20/07/2013 17:00
Young players from Italy, Spain, Switzerland through to Continental Cup finals
CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Zonal Phase
Novi Sad, Serbia, July 20, 2013. On Saturday as the Novi Sad Masters culminated in the semis and final matches, the third – out of eight – Zonal Phase tournament for the inaugural CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup was completed at Strand beach. Italy finally advanced to the final stage of the competition coming up in May 2014 in both genders while Spain and Switzerland qualified their boys and girls respectively for the event where six spots per gender will be assigned to determine the European contingent for the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China.
Switzerland’s Dunja Gerson/Nadine Mattmann claimed the girls’ final match as they bested their Italian opponents Irene Enzo and Michela Lantignotti in two close sets (21-18, 22-20). The home heroines of Serbia, Sara Jovicic and Milana Stojanoski, had to settle for fourth place as they lost the classification match to Spain’s Patricia Llabrés/Carla Alocén (21-16, 21-12). These countries – as well as fifth-placed Malta – did miss out on a chance to make it to the last and deciding phase of the Youth Continental Cup.
The boys’ competition did see Italy and Spain top the charts and advance to the final stage. In the second round of play completed on Saturday Spain’s Sergio Bruque/Luis Vives first edged the local favorites Igor Andric/Zoran Petrovic in straight sets (21-16, 21-16) and then also Switzerland’s Florian Breer and Yves Haussener at the end of a very close game (21-19, 22-24, and 15-12). As for Italy’s Manuel Alfieri and Paolo Di Silvestre, they settled for first place after besting the Swiss duo also in three sets (18-21, 21-17, and 15-9). In the end Switzerland was ranked third with Serbia rounding out the charts in fourth.
The awards ceremony that completed a memorable weekend for all of these youngsters and where special diplomas were presented to all participants was attended by CEV Board Member and Jury President Maris Pekalis of Latvia, CEV Assistant Technical Supervisor Meltem Emel Ozturk, Vip mobile Marketing and Corporate Communications Director Branka Letica as well as by Volleyball legend Vladimir Grbic, who is currently a Vice President of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia and also a member of the FIVB Development Commission.
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