03/09/2016 13:00
German women take three out of four semi-final spots in Jurmala
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Jurmala Masters
Jurmala, Latvia, September 3, 2016. Germany is a major force to be reckoned with at all Beach Volleyball competitions. The CEV Jurmala Masters is no exception, and this applies especially to the women’s tournament where four German teams progressed to the quarter-finals and three eventually made it through to the semis. There surely will be a German team vying for gold on Sunday since one of the two semi-finals due to be contested on Saturday late afternoon is an all-German affair. The eventual winners of the CEV Jurmala Masters will secure a quota spot for their National Federation to next year’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Vienna.
Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider, the winners of this year’s CEV Satellite in Ankara, had started their campaign on Majori beach on Thursday already with the qualification round – and they eventually progressed to the semis after easily claiming the matchup (21-17, 21-15) with their compatriots Katharina Culav and Sandra Seyfferth, another two qualifiers.
Next to advance to the semis were Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grossner. They upset a pretty large number of Latvian fans who had gathered to cheer the home stars on – but U22 European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka could not prevent their opponents from sealing a quick 21-16, 21-18 win in 34 minutes. Despite this setback, Graudina and Kravcenoka nevertheless exceeded their own expectations from the tournament as their primary goal was to make it out of pool play but eventually could be happy with fifth place at the end of their campaign on home sand.
Top-seeded and pre-favourites Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude (pictured) had to work hard for their victory in the quarter-final with Ukraine’s Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova, one of the real revelations of the 2016 Beach Volleyball season. Laboureur/Sude lost the first set but they could rely on their experience to master a comeback which reached its climax in the tie-break where they finished it all off with two consecutive aces by Laboureur after the Ukrainians had put on a fight in the early stages of the all-decider (17-21, 21-13, 15-8).
Russia’s Daria Rudykh and Olga Motrich are the only non-German team to have made it to the semis. They fought for three sets and eventually edged Finland’s Taru Lahti and Anniina Parkkinen 21-12, 17-21, 15-13 in 48 minutes under heavy rain. Lahti and Parkkinen were playing together for the first time since the 2014 U23 World Championships in Myslowice, Poland after Parkkinen’s partner Essi Hasu announced last week her retirement from competitive sport. Last Sunday Lahti won gold at the CEV Satellite in Kisakallio with regular partner Riikka Lehtonen who has now taken a break before disclosing her plans for the future. As for Rudykh and Motrich, the Russians continued their success story on Majori beach – only last Sunday they had won the bronze medal at an EEVZA event contested in Jurmala at the same venue that is hosting the CEV Masters.
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