08/07/2015 22:49
CEV Satellite in Vaduz underway with women’s qualification
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vaduz
Vaduz, Liechtenstein, July 8, 2015. The 2015 edition of the CEV Satellite in Vaduz got started on Wednesday with the women’s qualification. The tournament in the capital of the alpine Principality celebrated its tenth anniversary last year and the eleventh edition got underway on Wednesday with the eight matches on schedule for the women’s qualification round. The conditions were good and so about 500 fans showed up to follow the matches played on the centre court set up in Vaduz downtown – aka the Städtle.
Poland’s Karolina Baran and Jagoda Gruszczynska, the reigning U22 European champions, opened the programme cruising to a fairly comfortable 2:0 win (21-19, 21-12) over Greece’s Ioanna Parisaki and Dimitra Manavi to secure their spot in the Main Draw. Germany’s Anna Behlen and Katharina Culav, who are well-known in Vaduz as they have participated in a number of editions of the tournament, had to fight for three sets but eventually had the upper hand in their matchup with Latvia’s Alise Lece and Marta Ozolina (19-21, 21-18, 15-13). Their next opponent in the Main Draw will be Austria’s Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schützenhöfer who recently claimed silver at the Baku 2015 European Games in Azerbaijan. The Austrians are also the 2011 U20 European champions. The gold medallists from the Baku 2015 European Games, Nicole Eiholzer and Nina Betschart of Switzerland, are also set to compete in Vaduz.
Other teams who made the Main Draw are Essi Hasu/Anniina Parkkinen of Finland, Laura Longuet and Alexandra Jupiter of France, Latvia’s Inese Jursone and Tina Graudina, Diana Zolnercikova and Martina Jakubsova of the Czech Republic, Russia’s Olga Motrich/Ksenia Ezhak and Serbia’s Milena Matic/Marija Milosevic.
On Thursday home heroines Petra Schifferle-Walser and Claudia Hasler are set to play at noon and 9pm hoping to claim at least one win for Liechtenstein. Thursday’s programme also includes the men’s qualification with eight matches to be played starting at 9am to complete the composition of the Main Draw. The home team of Manuel Gahr/Maximilian von Deichmann will make their debut on Friday as they were pre-seeded in the Main Draw. After missing the last edition of the CEV Satellite in Vaduz, Gahr and von Deichmann are performing at home after claiming a silver medal at this year’s Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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