23/06/2016 20:12
Austria, Ukraine, Netherlands, Czech Republic through to women’s semis
2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Final
Stavanger, Norway, June 23, 2016. Ukraine vs. Austria, Czech Republic vs. The Netherlands are the semi-finals in the women’s competition of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final. After routing hosts Norway on Wednesday, Ukraine and more specifically their up-and-coming Beach Volleyball stars Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova ended Sweden’s Olympic dream with a 2-0 ‘Golden Match’ win over Karin Lundqvist/Anne Lie Rininsland. Austria and The Netherlands needed only two matches to edge past France and Italy, respectively – and they did so without dropping a set – before Thursday’s programme drew to a close with 2016 European silver medallists Marketa Slukova/Barbora Hermannova winning their second ‘Golden Match’ in as many days to secure a semi-final spot for the Czech Republic after edging Spain’s Ester Ribera Boter and Amaranta Fernández Navarro. Since Russia did not make it among the top four, the four semi-finalists of the CEV Continental Cup already know that – if they miss out on the top spot in Stavanger – they will continue to pursue their Olympic dream at the FIVB World Continental Cup Olympic Qualification due to take place in Sochi, Russia on July 6-10.
Click here for further information also on the qualification criteria for the FIVB World Continental Cup Olympic Qualification
Click here for a schedule of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup Final
Click here for a live and comprehensive gallery of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
Oranjes through to semis without dropping a set
The Netherlands made it to the semis of the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup after their teams – Sophie van Gestel/Jantine van der Vlist and Jolien Sinnema/Rimke Braakman – claimed their respective matches with Italy’s Monica Lestini/Giulia Saguatti and Laura Giombini/Rebecca Perry without dropping a set.
Van Gestel and van der Vlist were made to work hard for their 23-21, 21-17 victory over rookies Lestini/Saguatti, erasing a set ball for the Italians when trailing 19-20 in the first set. Later on Thursday morning, Sinnema/Braakman pulled out a 21-18, 21-19 victory to edge Giombini/Perry and secure a spot in the semis for the ‘orange team’.
Sinnema and Braakman already know that if the Netherlands qualify one more team to the Rio 2016 Olympics via the Continental Cup [Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel have secured their spot via the World Tour], van Gestel and van der Vlist will be taking this spot. “They simply have more ranking points and the decision was taken back in January by the Dutch Volleyball Federation,” Sinnema said. “It was difficult to accept it at the beginning but now it’s fine. We know where we stand and what we are playing for. We play to make sure that one additional Dutch team will go to the Olympics, which means that more Beach Volleyball will be shown on TV and hopefully one or the other child will be inspired and take up the sport one day,” Sinnema said.
“Beach Volleyball is not yet a mainstream sport in the Netherlands even though our country successfully hosted the World Championship last year,” she continued. “Though it did not change much in terms of media and TV exposure, I can see there is a legacy. I live in Scheveningen, right on the seaside where a Grand Slam event took place for many years, and this is where all professional Beach Volleyball players on the programme established by the Dutch Federation are based. If you go out to the beach on a sunny day, you will see that a lot more people are now playing Beach Volleyball, even just for fun. In this respect the World Championship have certainly raised the profile and popularity of Beach Volleyball in Holland, at the grass-roots level, and this is definitely a good thing.”
Slukova/Hermannova claim second straight ‘Golden Match’
The Czech Republic made it a step closer to qualifying for the semis after 2016 European silver medallists Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova claimed their matchup with Angela Lobato and Paula Soria. After asking for a time-out, the Czechs stormed back from a 5-8 deficit in the second set to stamp a terrific 17-4 run that resulted in a comprehensive 21-12 win to seal their 2-0 victory.
“The Continental Cup is a very specific competition because usually after winning a match you can start preparing for the next one and now we actually have to wait to know what is going to follow,” Marketa Slukova said. “We are still debating if we should stay on and follow the next match to scout the other Spanish team we would play in an eventual ‘Golden Match’ or we should rather take some rest. It is true, it is kind of a strange feeling but am confident that the second Czech team has got what it takes to secure our progression to the semis bypassing the ‘Golden Match’,” she added.
Slukova was not quite right with these predictions since her countrywomen Kristyna Kolocova and Michala Kvapilova clearly lost 13-21, 15-21 their matchup with Ester Ribera Boter and Amaranta Fernández Navarro to shape up another ‘Golden Match’ for the Czechs, the second in two days after on Wednesday they needed this extra match as well to edge past their neighbours from Slovakia.
The final showdown of the day between Slukova/Hermannova and Fernández/Boter was one to remember. The Spaniards caught a very promising start to the match winning the opening set 22-20 before Slukova/Hermannova stepped up their efforts in the second, this resulting in a landslide 21-13 win. After a close race in the early stages of the tie-break, the Czechs slowly but surely broke away and never looked back to seal their ticket to the semis (15-12). “I think they [the Spaniards] played without any pressure, they had nothing to lose and actually looked very motivated to win,” Hermannova said. “I think we did a good job coming back so strong in the second set and this set the tone for the tie-break that followed. As for tomorrow’s semi-final with The Netherlands, we very much hope our second team will help us and do better than they did today and yesterday, so we can possibly avoid another ‘Golden Match’. I am pretty confident that this will happen and believe they have had their bad matches this week already, so tomorrow is a new day for them as well.”
Davidova/Shchypkova put an end to Sweden’s Olympic dream
Karin Lundqvist and Anne Lie Rininsland added another chapter to their fairy tale – but this time around they also provided their fans with some extra thrills towards the end of the second set in their matchup with Ukrainian twins Inna and Iryna Makhno. The Swedes indeed needed as many as seven match balls before they could finally seal their 21-13, 27-25 victory to set their sights on the semis waiting for their countrywomen Camilla Nilsson and Tadva Yoken to possibly upset Ukraine’s top team Ievgeniia Shchypkova and Valentyna Davidova.
“Yes, we kind of liked this additional bit of drama towards the end of the match, it makes it more exciting for the fans and more interesting for those who have to write about it,” Karin Lundqvist joked. “We very much hope that we can skip the ‘Golden Match’ and for some help from Camilla and Tadva,” Rininsland added. “The sand is very hard and it is difficult to play on that kind of surface. Anyway, I’ll just take some pain killers for my knee and get ready for the next match,” she added before her partner continued: “I do not really mind about the conditions of the playing surface. As long as we keep on winning, these conditions are just ideal and perfect, and they will be even more so if we reach the semis.”
This scenario did not materialise since Yoken and Nilsson did not capitalise on a number of opportunities to claim the first set before they ended up losing 25-23, 21-15 to the gold medal winners of this year’s EEVZA Moscow Masters and CEV Vilnius Satellite.
Later in the afternoon, Davidova and Shchypkova eventually put an end to Sweden’s Olympic dream in a ‘Golden Match’ that they almost controlled from start to end – as soon as Lundqvist and Rininsland closed in to 15-14 in the first set, the Ukrainians stepped up their efforts to close it out at 21-17 before they further asserted their dominance in the second set where they set the tempo from the very beginning through to a comprehensive 21-15 win.
Shchypkova looked truly emotional after the match: “I can’t believe we have made it to the semis, it is difficult to put my feelings into words since I still haven’t fully realised what we have achieved. This is only our first season together and playing Beach Volleyball, so that’s all the more amazing.”
Austria stun France in two rounds
On Thursday afternoon Austria emulated what the Netherlands had done earlier in the morning qualifying to the semis by means of their two straight wins over teams from France.
France had caused the biggest sensation of the opening day in Stavanger eliminating pre-favourite Russia from the competition – but ran out of fuel for the quarter-final match with Austria. 2013 European champion Stefanie Schwaiger and partner Barbara Hansel – a silver medallist from the 2011 EuroBeachVolley held in Kristiansand, also in Norway – lived up to their status by cashing an easy victory in their matchup with France’s no. 2 Aline Chamereau and Ophélie Lusson (21-14, 21-10) in only 28 minutes of play.
Laura Longuet and Alexandra Jupiter were supposed to level the count for France and the expectations were high, especially following the victory they had claimed on Wednesday over Russia’s star team Ekaterina Birlova/Evgenia Ukolova. However, 2011 U20 European champions and Baku 2015 European Games silver medallists Katharina Schützenhöfer and Lena Plesiutschnig were up to the task and though it took three match balls before the match was finally over, they cashed a 2-0 win (21-18, 23-21) that propels Austria into the semis and keeps their Olympic dream alive.
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