Vilnius, Lithuania, June 28, 2014.  After the first competition day in Pool F of the 1st round in the men’s 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup four national teams have qualified for Sunday’s semifinals.   Lithuania will play against Estonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will face Cyprus.  The Balkan team beat Moldova in the only Round 1 match-up and, despite losing to Estonia in Round 2, had a losers’ bracket bye, which sent it to the semis.  The home team of Lithuania lost to Cyprus the other Round 2 match-up, but then recovered with a losers’ bracket victory over Moldova.

Moldova 1, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2

Out of all the participating countries, only Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova had to play in the first round.  The first match was more successful for Moldova as their first team Roman Dudikov / Evgheni Tcacenco celebrated a victory by defeating Luka Sormaz / Nenad Sormaz in three sets by 2:1 (19:21, 21:13, 15:7).

Roman Dudikov, Moldova:  “We are happy with the result, but not with our game.  We both play indoor volleyball and beach volleyball is more like a hobby for us, so we do not feel prepared to play on the sand yet.  The clear leaders of our group are the Estonians, there are no chances for the other teams to win against them.  We really enjoy being here, the city is lovely and the competition is organized well.”

Roman Dudikov and Evgheni Tcacenco have never been in Lithuania before, but they already have some experience playing against the Lithuanians.  They are members of Moldova‘s national volleyball team which recently participated in the first-round qualifications for the 2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men in Luxemburg and defeated Lithuania’s national team.

However, the further experience of Moldova’s team in Vilnius was not so pleasant.  Its second duo Marin Cojocaru / Iulian Cravet lost the game against Drago Teodorovic / Zarko Kisic by 0:2 (18-21, 11-21).  Bosnia and Herzegovina was then successful in the golden match.  Drago Teodorovic / Zarko Kisic showed a strong performance one more time and defeated Roman Dudikov / Evgheni Tcacenco by 2:0 (21-12, 21-18).

Zarko Kisic, Bosnia and Herzegovina:  “We focused on receiving a lot as it is really important in beach volleyball.  Also, if there was a high block, we were trying to go around, but if there was a low block, we were just spiking and doing this successfully.  I really like the atmosphere iat the courts, the people in Vilnius are very social and friendly.”

Cyprus 2, Lithuania 0

In the first match-up of Round 2, the home Lithuanian team faced Cyprus.  The second Lithuanian duo Rokas Kondrotas / Motiejus Melynis made the crowd of local fans upset by losing 1:2 (18-21, 21-18, 13-15) to Dimitris Apostolou / Vladimir Knezevic from Cyprus.  In the next match, with great support from the local fans, Arnas Rumsevicius / Lukas Kazdailis started the game impressively by winning the first set against Anthimos Economides / Georgios Platritis by 21:12.  The young Lithuanian pair, which ended up fourth in last year’s in FIVB U19 World Championship, started to feel relaxed too early and finally lost the game by 1:2 (21-12, 19-21, 11-15).

Motiejus Melynis, Lithuania:  “At the beginning we felt so stressed that we started to play our game only in the middle of the first set.  Later we performed better, but at the very end of the third set we felt big pressure and we were not able to cope with our nerves.  We have almost no experience playing international matches, while the team from Cyprus was more calm and relaxed.  That is why they have won.”

Rokas Kondrotas, Lithuania:  “We will play much better in the next game, I am sure we will be able to fight the stress.”

Anthimos Economides and Georgios Plaritis, Cyprus:  “We lost the first set as we needed some time to adjust to the new place, the new environment.  But later everything was fine, we think we were definitely better than the Lithuanians in blocking and defense.”

Estonia 2, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1

In the other Round 2 match-up, the top-seeded Estonians Kristo Kollo / Rivo Vesik beat Luka Sormaz / Nedad Sormaz from Bosnia and Herzegovina by 2:0 (21-13, 21-12) in just 25 minutes.  However, the second Estonian duo Maksim Petrov / Aleksei Povjakel  lost to Drago Teodorovic / Zarko Kisic by 1:2 (12-21, 21-15, 21-23).  In the golden match Kollo / Vesik took revenge, winning by 2:0 (21-9, 21-18) against Teodorovic / Kisic.

Rivo Vesik, Estonia:  “We are glad to win and to qualify to the semifinals.  I expected we would not need the golden match as our second duo was really able to win against the opponents.  However, they probably felt a little bit stressed.  Tomorrow we will face the Lithuanian team and I think we can expect to have an interesting match versus their youths Rumsevicius / Kazdailis.”

Lithuania 2, Moldova 0

In the only match-up from the losers’ bracket, the Lithuanian team managed to defeat Moldova and took the last available semifinal spot.  Both Lithuania’s pairs performed really well.  This time more focused, Rumsevicius / Kazdailis did not leave any chances to Marin Cojocaru / Iulian Cravet winning by 2:0 (21-12, 21-14).  Rokas Kondrotas / Motiejus Melynis won by 2:1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-9) in a challenging game against Roman Dudikov / Evgheni Tcacenco.