11/07/2015 00:58
Women’s semis set at Vaduz Satellite as 2,000 fans flock to venue at Städtle
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vaduz
Vaduz, Liechtenstein, July 10, 2015. Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schützenhöfer, the silver medallists from the Baku 2015 European Games, quite comfortably made it to the semis of the CEV Satellite in Vaduz whilst France’s Laura Longuet and Alexandra Jupiter had to fight a lot more to achieve that same feat on Friday. As 2,000 fans flocked to the venue of the tournament, the right ambiance was definitely there as the Main Draw of the men’s competition started as well, with Italy’s Marco Caminati/Enrico Rossi making it straight to Round 3 whilst top-seeded Sebastian Fuchs and Thomas Kaczmarek suffered a setback and will re-start their campaign playing their countrymen Bennet and David Poniewaz, silver medallists from the 2014 edition of the tournament held in the alpine Principality.
Plesiutschnig and Schützenhöfer confirmed the excellent impression they had left at the Baku 2015 European Games and comfortably made the semis in Vaduz to play there Inese Jursone and Tina Graudina of Latvia who came out victorious at the end of a very tough game with Germany’s Anna Behlen and Katharina Culav in the losers’ bracket (26-24, 24-22). The Latvians convinced especially with their strong performance in defence and their match with the Germans will remain as one of the major highlights of the tournament. Longuet/Jupiter failed to make the Main Draw at the FIVB Gstaad Major Series earlier this week but have been performing well in Vaduz. Though they lost in Round 3 to Plesiutschnig and Schützenhöfer, they got back on track and made the semis to play there Germany’s Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider, the gold medallists from this year’s Satellite in Molodechno, Belarus.
The sensation caused in the men’s qualification round by Swiss youngsters Quentin Métral and Michiel Zandbergen – who had upset the gold medallists from last year’s Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, Russia’s Artem Yarzutkin and Oleg Stoyanovskiy – ended after two rounds in the Main Draw. The winners and runners-up from the 2014 edition of the Vaduz Satellite, Tobias Winter/Lorenz Petutschnig of Austria and Germany’s twins David and Bennet Poniewaz, have to re-start their campaign through the losers’ bracket. Both teams lost to another German tandem, Tim Holler and Jonas Schröder. Italy’s Marco Caminati and Enrico Rossi, the second seed of the tournament, on the other hand quite comfortably made it through to Round 3.
As for home heroes Manuel Gahr and Maximilian von Deichmann, the campaign at the Vaduz Satellite came to an end after two matches for the silver medallists from this year’s Games of the Small States of Europe. After losing to Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren and Tom Van Walle earlier in the day (11-21, 10-21), they got a second chance later in the evening but lost 15-21, 15-21 to the gold medallist from the Baku 2015 European Games, Latvia’s Haralds Regza, and his partner Armands Abolins after briefly leading in the opening set.
The tournament will continue on Saturday with the next elimination rounds for the men’s and the semis and medal matches for the women’s competition, respectively. The bronze and gold medal matches are scheduled for 8 and 9pm local time.
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