Fethiye, Turkey, September 20, 2014.  The women’s 2014 CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship continued with single elimination games in Turkey on Saturday.  Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 games were played on four courts and semifinal match-ups are decided.

Ukraine’s Elizaveta Sulima / Dar'ya Udovenko, who defeated the German duo Sandra Ittlinger / Yanina Weiland in the FIVB U21 Beach Volleyball World Championship two months ago to finish fifth, did it again in Fethiye.  Their Round 3 game started very close, but the Ukrainians took control after the second set and won by 3:1 (15-13, 12-15, 15-6, 15-9).

Elizaveta Sulima stated that they are chasing the gold medal for their country:  “This is amazing.  We are very happy.  We are glad to be in the semifinals and playing on the last day, because it is very necessary for us to have some good results and maybe a medal.  We will try to do our best tomorrow.  We will try to win a medal for our country.  It will be great.  We will be fighting.”

Dar’ya Udovenko underlined that playing against the German team helped them a lot today:  “Reaching the last four is wonderful.  We played a great game.  We played against the German team in the U21 World Championship in Cyprus.  We know them and we know that we won against a very strong team.  We know we are a good team and we will do our best tomorrow too.”

Sulima / Udovenko will play against Karolina Baran / Jagoda Gruszczynska, one of the two Polish teams in the semifinals.  Katarzyna Kociolek / Dorota Strag is the other one and their semifinal opponents will be Nicole Eiholzer / Dunja Gerson from Switzerland.

Click here for more detailed information on the competition.