06/09/2015 10:44
Lithuania’s men out, Austria and France to meet in ‘big final’ in Vilnius
2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
Vilnius, Lithuania, September 5, 2015. On the first day of action in Round 4 – Pool A of the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup the hosts of Lithuania didn’t manage to stay alive in the competition and had to be content with fourth place. On Sunday Austria and France will fight for first place in the ‘big final’ with Finland still having the chance to finish second and be promoted to the next round.
France vs. Lithuania 2:0
The programme of the opening day in Vilnius started with the clash between Lithuania and France. The top-ranked team in the tournament, Edouard Rowlandson and Youssef Krou (pictured), started strong but the home heroes were absolutely not willing to give up. After losing the first set by 14-21, Artur Vasiljev and Robert Juchnevic were close to winning the second one, but the French team managed to survive and eventually closed the match in two sets (21-14, 24-22). Later in a very emotional match the young home team and bronze medallists from the 2014 U20 European Championship in Italy, Arnas Rumsevicius/Lukas Kazdailis lost 0:2 (19-21, 16-21) to Jean-Baptiste Daguerre and Yannick Salvetti.
Lithuania’s Artur Vasiljev said: “We’ve just had an interesting match with top-class opponents. The French team has much more experience in international tournaments than we have but the fact that it was a close game and we even had a set-point in the second set shows that we are developing in the right direction.”
France’s Youssef Krou said: “We had a lot of opportunities to widen our lead in the second set but we didn’t use them. Maybe the early morning had some influence, besides the other team trapped us a lot, they were even leading 22:21, but we managed to come back and win the match.”
Austria vs. Finland 2:1
The first match between Austria and Finland ended up with a surprise. After cruising to a speedy 21-8 in the first set of their matchup with Jyrki Nurminen/Harri Suonikko, Alexander Horst and Daniel Müllner were not able to keep momentum and ended up losing 1-2 (21-8, 22-24, 13-15). Austria came back strong by winning the second match between Alexander Huber/Robin Seidl and Timo Haavisto/Toni Vahela 2-0 (21-15, 21-19). In the ‘golden match’ Austria took the opportunity to mix their teams and this time Alexander Horst in tandem with Robin Seidl took revenge on Jyrki Nurminen/Harri Suonikko 2-0 (21-15, 21-12).
Alexander Horst commented: “We had some difficulties at the beginning of the day as it is not easy to change partner. I am used to playing with Clemens Doppler, but he is sick now and it was a last-minute decision for Austria to participate here in such a composition. It takes some time to adjust, but now we feel much more confident and I am sure our performance tomorrow will be even better.”
Lithuania vs. Finland 1:2
Lithuania and Finland crossed their ways in the evening vying for the right to stay alive in the competition and to fight for the second place in the pool. Artur Vasiljev and Robert Juchnevic lost 0-2 (18-21, 19-21) to Timo Haavisto and Toni Vahela, but with an amazing effort by Arnas Rumsevicius/Lukas Kazdailis Lithuania came back by winning 2-0 (21-12, 31-29) the following match with Jyrki Nurminen and Harri Suonikko. In the second set the home team had a bunch of match points but didn‘t manage to cash them until the Finnish team got really tired and made some mistakes in a row. But this victory was not enough for Lithuania to stay in the competition – in the ‘golden match’ that followed Timo Haavisto and Toni Vahela were just too strong for Arnas Rumsevicius and Lukas Kazdailis, winning 2-0 (21-18, 21-19).
Toni Vahela of Finland said: “Today we had probably one of the best matches of the season and we really enjoyed our game. The Lithuanian team is still very young and that is visible from the kind of mistakes they make, but I think they have a bright future ahead.”
Click here for further information on the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
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