Montpellier, France, June 17, 2014. The third CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite for 2014 is already underway in the French city of Montpellier. The first match of this women-only tournament was the only one that took place on Tuesday afternoon and marked the official start of the competition.
The spectators in Montpellier saw a beautiful country quota clash between two teams from Norway. Irmelin Torsvik Sannarnes / Ane Guro Tveit Hjortland and Vilde Solvoll / Ingrid Lunde were the two lowest-ranked of the four registered Norwegian teams, so one of them had to go.
It was a very closely fought match. The two duos took the first set battle well into overtime. Three more tough sets followed and after a total of 56 minutes of play, Sannarnes / Hjortland emerged victorious with a 3:1 (20-18, 12-15, 15-13, 15-11) victory and a ticket to Wednesday’s qualification tournament in hand.
Sand court action at Odysseum’s Theatre Helios in Montpellier will resume tomorrow at 09:30 local time. A 24-team qualification tournament will determine the last eight participants in the main draw scheduled to start on Thursday.
Click here for more information on the tournament.