16/06/2014 20:39
Montpellier welcomes second edition of CEV Satellite tournament
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Montpellier
Montpellier, France, June 16, 2014. A CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite is taking place for the second consecutive year in Montpellier, France. The single-gender competition – only women will be squaring off this year on the courts set up in the city situated right by the Mediterranean Sea – will get underway on Tuesday with the country quota matches and come to an end on Saturday with the semi-finals and final matches. This time the event will be held in a rather unusual venue, the Théâtre Hélios, at the very heart of the well-known Odysseum shopping mall.
Some valuable FIVB ranking points will be at stake in Montpellier as European teams have already started their long-term quest to make it to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The tournament will follow a series of rules that are being tested this year by the CEV, i.e. sets will be played up to 15 points, in a “best of five” format. The eventual fifth set will be played up to seven points, with a minimum lead of two points. Teams will be allowed to ask for maximum three time-outs per match and one per set respectively. They will be switching sides every seven points – as they already do in all other competitions – and every four points in the eventual tie-break.
“Montpellier will be hosting this week a CEV Satellite tournament for the second consecutive year,” says the President of the local Organising Committee, Vincent Costalat. “This time the tournament will profit of a unique location. Teams are travelling to Montpellier from all over Europe as they are trying to collect as many points as they can in order to fulfil, one day, their Olympic dream. Our pairs will be trying to exploit this opportunity to shine before the home crowd as they also want to represent their country at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. I just would like to recall that Rio, quite significantly, is one of Montpellier’s sister cities. Apart from the tournament, I expect that the coming days will turn into a real celebration of Beach Volleyball. We would like to thank the French Volleyball Federation and our partners who have showed much confidence and trust by supporting us this year as well.”
Déborah Giaoui/Mathilde Giordano, Mélinda Adelin/Laura Longuet, Vanessa Bonacossi/Zoé Cazalet, and Anastassia Koutchouk/Elisabeth Fedele are the four teams set to represent the host country in Montpellier. They all have been working very hard for the last four weeks and share the same dream of glory in front of a large home audience. Europe’s traditional Beach Volleyball forces – Germany, the Netherlands, Russia as well as Norway – have all registered teams for the tournament.
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