Antalya, Turkey, May 16, 2014. The third leg of pool play at the women’s 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final featured two matches between teams that had won their first games and had to enter decisive battles for direct tickets to the second elimination round. In one of them Ukraine overpowered Lithuania in straight sets to claim the top spot in Pool E.
After both teams had succeeded in winning against Turkey’s second duo Merve Nezir / Irmak Keskin, they had to face each other to settle who gets to skip the first elimination round to go directly to the second. In their match against Turkey, Ukraine’s Dar'ya Udovenko / Alina Demidova had some difficulties as the second set went deep into overtime to stop the match at 2:0 (21-8, 29-27). However, against Lithuania’s Simona Vaiciukynaite / Urte Andriukaityte they maintained a steady rhythm, stayed in control of the scoreboard and with the support of some enthusiastic fans on the stands won by 2:0 (21-16, 21-16) in 29 minutes.
Despite the political and financial difficulties their country is dealing with, the Ukrainian team is not only participating at this event, but after two victories is already just one step away from a ticket to the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing.
“The situation in our country is awful, but it does not make any difference for us when we are on the court. Politics is there and we cannot deny it, but we are volleyball players. Our task is to show Ukraine as a beautiful and sports country,” Udovenko commented. “We prepared for this tournament hard and it is really great that we won two consecutive matches, but we have not qualified for the Olympics yet. We really want to go to China and we are ready for it.”
“I thank my partner for these two wins,” Demidova added. “But we are aware that we still have to win our next game in order to go to Nanjing. We will train hard and prepare well for it.”
The other head-to-head clash for a direct ticket for the second round was between Russia and Germany in Pool F. After the two teams had scored straight-set victories against Italy, the first place in the pool was up for grabs by the winner of this match. Russia’s Daria Rudykh / Nadezhda Makroguzova clearly showed their superiority on the court and defeated Germany’s Sarah Schneider / Leonie Welsch by 2:0 (21-15, 21-14) in 31 minutes of play.
After this victory Makroguzova’s statement was short and to the point: “The first two games of the competition were easy for us. We trained really hard and prepared well for this tournament. We are ready for tomorrow’s second round game.”
“We had two straight wins because we were ready,” Rudykh confirmed. “We do not know who we are going to play tomorrow, but we are ready for that game as well. We played the way our coach demands from us and made it through to the second round.”
The only other duo that went through the pool round without losing any sets was the Czech Republic (Katerina Valkova / Kristyna Adamcikova). Also topping their pools with two victories each and qualifying directly for the second qualification round were the teams of France (Héléna Cazaute / Aline Chamereau), Switzerland (Esther Rohrer / Dunja Gerson) and Latvia (Tina Graudina / Anastasija Kravcenoka).
All other teams, following the drawing of lots will form the match-ups for the first elimination round scheduled to take place later today.
Click here for photos and more detailed information on the women’s 2014 CEV Youth Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final.