11/08/2018 23:58
American qualifiers claim top honours at 1-Star/Satellite event in Vaduz
2018 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vaduz
Vaduz, Liechtenstein, August 11, 2018. Alexandra Wheeler/Lara Dykstra are the eventual winners of the women’s competition at the 1-Star/Satellite in Vaduz as the team from the United States went all the way from progressing through the qualification round held on Wednesday to standing on top of the podium on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the men’s tournament reached the semis with teams from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Switzerland still in contention for the medals.
In the women’s semis, Wheeler and Dykstra played top seeds Esmée Böbner/Zoé Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland; despite vying for their second straight World Tour gold medal following their success in Ljubljana last Sunday, the young Swiss players gave away too many easy points at the end of each set, making also too many service mistakes. As a result, Wheeler and Dykstra rallied to a comprehensive 21-19, 21-19 victory. “We made just a few more points and it was a really tight game. We just wanted to focus on ourselves and play a good game. We managed to do that more or less,” Wheeler commented after the semi-final. In the second semi, Poland’s Agata Ceynowa/Martyna Kloda comfortably beat Greece’s Dimitra Manavi and Konstantina Tsopoulou in straight sets (21-15, 21-14).
A spectacular shot from the semi-final match between Wheeler/Dykstra (USA) and top seeds Böbner/Vergé-Dépré (SUI)
In the ‘small final’, the Swiss showed once again two very different faces: in the first set, they did not play well at all. Once again, Böbner and Vergé-Dépré made too many service mistakes and were not consistent enough in their attacks while their block and defence game was not effective either. However, in the second set, their high-risk service strategy re-emerged, and the top seeds won a landslide victory. In the third set, however, the tide turned again and the Swiss lost the game 1-2 (14-21, 21-10, 13-15). Bronze medal winners Manavi/Tsopoulou said that they did not do much better than the Swiss. “We just played point by point and always believed in ourselves, even after we lost the second set so badly,” they said.
The grand finale was a one-sided affair, as Wheeler and Dykstra needed only 33 minutes to rally to a 21-13, 21-17 victory over Ceynowa and Kloda. The Americans seemed aware that they were much stronger, especially in side-out, than the opposition. “Above all, we used the tournament to grow as a team and gain confidence in ourselves. We succeeded well and we are very happy that we could win one of our first overseas tournament,” they said.
Alexandra Wheeler celebrates her gold medal winning performance in Vaduz
Wheeler and Dykstra are the second USA team to achieve this feat in a 1-Star/Satellite event held in Europe this summer after Emily Sonny and Torrey Van Winden had finished first in Porec back in July after starting their campaign from the qualification round as well.
Liechtenstein team happy with ninth place as Myskiv/Samoday extend winning streak
Home favourites Manuel Gahr/Maximilian von Deichmann grabbed their chance on Friday night to stay alive in the tournament as they beat Ali Berke Sagir and Yusuf Ozdemir of Turkey to progress to the Round of 12. However, against the strong Latvians Haralds Regza/Toms Smedins they lost 0-2 (19-21, 17-21) despite delivering a good performance. Overall, the Liechtenstein team was satisfied with their appearance: “The level at the tournament was as usual high. We are satisfied that we were able to keep up even in the games we lost. Of course, our victory against the Turkish team was a big success. It was a lot of fun playing in front of so many people at home,” Gahr and von Deichmann said.
Reigning European Snow Volleyball champion Taras Myskiv and partner Valeriy Samoday are in contention for another gold medal in Vaduz after their success last Sunday in Ljubljana
Russia’s Taras Myskiv/Valeriy Samoday are still flying high. After making it through the qualification and winning the Ljubljana tournament last week, they did not lose a single match to progress straight to the semi-finals in Vaduz. There they will play Ukraine’s Sergiy Popov/Vladyslav Iemelianchyk. It is going to be an interesting clash since Samoday and Popov played together for a number of years, claiming a series of medals from European and World age-group championships. “We just work hard every day to get better and fortunately that is the result,” Myskiv and Samoday modestly explained their winning streak.
In the second semi-final, Florian Breer/Yves Haussener of Switzerland will play Mateusz Paszkowski/Mateusz Lysikowski of Poland. The young Swiss and Ljubljana bronze medal winners emerged victorious from a dramatic quarterfinal match with top seeds Quentin Métral and Simon Hagenbuch. Breer/Haussener needed more than one hour to secure a 14-21, 21-18, 28-26 come-from-behind victory.
The semi-finals will take place on Sunday at noon and 1 pm. At 2 pm, there will be a celebrity fun tournament held to pay tribute to the late President of the Organising Committee, Patrick Schürmann. The medal matches will then follow at 4 and 5 pm.
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