Montpellier, France, June 17, 2014.  Two duos from Germany and one each from Spain and Russia managed to stay unbeaten on the first competition day of the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite Montpellier main draw.  Each of them achieved two victories on Thursday and is now one step away from the semifinals.  In Thursday’s quarterfinal Round 3 games top-seeded Jana Koehler / Anni Schumacher will face Jenny Heinemann / Anika Krebs in an all-German duel, while Spain’s Angela Lobato Herrero / Paula Soria Gutierrez will meet Russia’s Anna Gorbunova / Ksenia Dabizha.

Koehler / Schumacher made it through to Round 3 with a 3:1 (15-13, 15-17, 15-13, 15-11) victory over Latvia’s Tina Graudina / Inese Jursone and a 3:0 (15-9, 15-11, 15-10) shutout against Poland’s Karolina Baran / Jagoda Gruszczynska.  Both of these teams after that won their first matches in the losers’ bracket to stay alive in the competition.

Tina Graudina, the youngest player of the tournament, shared her feelings about the venue:  “In the past, I played indoor for one or two years, but I did not like it so much and I joined the beach center five years ago in Latvia.  This summer is my first experience in international beach volleyball.  We like the sand here because it is deep and it is hard enough to move fast on.  We can do it so it is an advantage for us.  I can see that the sand has been brought here and the disposition of the courts is really interesting.  I like it!”

Heinemann / Krebs survived two tie-breaker sets in the day’s longest running matches.  In 65 minutes, they overcame one of the home duos - Melinda Adelin / Laura Longuet, by 3:2 (12-15, 12-15, 19-17, 15-12, 7-4) with a spectacular comeback.  Then it took them 70 minutes and a final score of 3:2 (16-18, 19-17, 15-9, 11-15, 7-4) to go past German compatriots Kim Behrens / Sandra Seyfferth.

On the contrary, the Spanish duo Lobato / Soria cruised to the quarterfinals with two straight-set victories – 3:0 (15-11, 15-13, 17-15) over Norway’s Cindy Treland / Janne Pedersen and 3:0 (15-11, 15-11, 15-10) over France’s Deborah Giaoui / Mathilde Giordano.

Russians Gorbunova / Dabizha also had a French team as one of their obstacles.  In Round 1 they claimed a 3:1 (15-13, 15-10, 9-15, 15-13) victory over Vanessa Bonacossi / Zoe Cazalet.  In Round 2 they were quick to deal with second-seeded Janne Kongshavn / Victoria Faye Kjolberg from Norway, beating them by 3:0 (15-10, 15-11, 15-9) for 30 minutes in one of the day’s shortest matches.

The large home audience was a bit disappointed to see only one of the three French duos survive the day in the losers’ bracket.  After Giaoui / Giordano had won their first match with a surprising 3:0 (15-13, 15-8, 16-14) against third-seeded reigning U18 European champions Nadezda Makroguzova / Daria Rudykh from Russia, after the loss to the Spaniards in the second round, they skipped the first leg of the losers’ bracket to face Graudina / Jursone in the second on Friday.  The other two home crowd favorites each lost both their matches on Thursday and were knocked out of contention, finishing 13th in the final ranking.  The big disappointment of the day was the elimination of fifth-seeded Adelin / Longuet, who played to five-setters without being successful in the decisive tie-breakers – first against Heinemann / Krebs and then against the Dutch pair Annemieke Driessen / Ilke Meertens, to whom they lost by 2:3 (15-10, 11-15, 11-15, 18-16, 3-7).

Action will resume on Friday morning on the center court at Odysseum’s Theatre Helios in Montpellier with the second set of matches in the losers’ bracket with one team each from Sweden, Germany, Russia, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, Latvia and France hoping to stay alive and fight their way back into Saturday’s semifinals.

All matches will be streamed live on LAOLA1.tv.