11/06/2016 16:18
Heavy winds and rain do not prevent Lithuanian ‘Queens of the Beach’ from fighting back at Vilnius Satellite
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vilnius
Vilnius, Lithuania, June 11, 2016. Matches of the CEV Satellite in Vilnius were stopped late in the afternoon on Saturday because of difficult weather conditions. Teams from Spain and Norway had already secured a spot in the semis while players from Germany, Ukraine and Lithuania were still chasing their spot among the top four of the competition.
Click here for a video summary of the day
Though cold winds were blowing from the north, these seem to provide a further boost to the home teams. After experiencing ups and downs in the matches they contested on Friday, home stars Monika Povilaityte and Ieva Dumbauskaite were able to regroup and claim their match with Norway’s Ingrid Lunde/Oda Johanne Ulveseth 21-17, 18-21, 15-6 to stay alive in the competition. Their performance against Viktoryia Siakretava and Viktoryia Shalayeuskaya of Belarus was even more impressive, resulting in a commanding 21-13, 21-16 victory.
Lithuania’s other team still in the race for a spot in the semis, Urte Andriukaityte and Irina Zobnina, could not handle the pressure after the sensation they had caused on Friday and ended up clearly losing their match with Spain’s Ester Ribera Boter and Amaranta Fernandez Navarro (9-21, 17-21). The Spaniards made it through to the semis while Andriukaityte and Zobnina will be playing their compatriots Dumbauskaite and Povilaityte for a spot in the semi-finals. The good news is that at least one Lithuanian team will be among the top four.
Zobnina could not hide her disappointment: “Each match provides you with an opportunity to come up with some tricky moves to win, but today we did not manage to find a way out of the problems we had. On Friday, we did more than we expected from ourselves but today we did not quite live up to the expectations we had. Maybe we lack psychological strength. But we will try to listen to our coaches and play even better.”
Earlier in the day Bulgaria’s Diana Malinova and Rusena Slancheva withdrew from their match with Siakretava/Shalayeuskaya due to an injury they had sustained after Friday’s matches and as a result the Balkan country has no more chances to win a medal in Vilnius.
Germany’s Lisa Arnholdt and Anni Schumacher fought bravely to stay alive in the competition. They first beat Norway’s Ane Guro Tveit Hjortland/Victoria Faye Kjølberg 2-1 (18-21, 21-7, 15-8) and after that they delivered a real show in the matchup with 2014 U22 European champions Jagoda Gruszczynska and Dorota Strag of Poland (21-18, 21-18). The Germans will play Ukraine’s Valentyna Davidova and Ievgeniia Shchypkova for a spot in the semis after the winners of the EEVZA Moscow Masters lost to Norway’s Janne Kongshavn and Vilde Solvoll a three-set battle for a spot in the semis (22-20, 15-21, 9-15).
The competition will resume on Sunday morning after two matches were postponed due to heavy rain, with teams from Spain and Norway waiting to know the names of their opponents in the semis.
Click here for further information including detailed results, a match programme and much more
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