Antalya, Turkey, May 16, 2014.  France’s U19 team is the only one that managed to secure its ticket to the crucial second elimination round after only two legs of pool play at the women’s 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final.  Helena Cazaute / Aline Chamereau defeated both of their opponents to guarantee themselves the first place in Pool A.

In their first match, the French girls succeeded in upsetting the #1 seed of the tournament, Austria’s Mona Gesslbauer / Julia Radl, by a dramatic 2:1 (16-21, 21-16, 15-13) for 50 minutes in the longest match of the competition so far.  In the tie-breaker set Cazaute / Chamereau survived an Austrian comeback scare caused by the opponents’ three consecutive points to level the score at 13-13.  However, the French took the following two rallies to celebrate victorious.

They had a tough first set in their second match, against Norway’s Hannah Sofie Perrens / Sunniva Helland-Hansen, but again showed some character to win it in overtime.  Cazaute / Chamereau were then well in control of the entire second set before Cazaute finished it off with a poke for the final 2:0 (24-22, 21-17).

“It is very hard to lead a pool that includes a team like Austria,” Aline Chamereau commented after the second victory.  “They have a lot of experience, but we managed to win against them.  We had only two weeks to prepare for this tournament.  We are very happy to win two straight games and to reach second elimination round.”

“It was really difficult to start this competition,” Helena Cazaute added.  “We were stressed, but succeeded to win two matches in the pool.  We had to be very focused against Austria because they are a very good team.  It was our first game of the season.  We will do our best in the second round.”

In each of the other five pools, the first place is still up for grabs and will be decided later today with the outcome of the third-leg matches.