29/05/2019 14:00
Irish Volleyball Team announced for Olympic qualifiers
2018-2020 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup
Dublin, Ireland, May 29, 2019. Volleyball Ireland has announced the four pairings that will compete in this weekend’s Continental Cup at Bettystown, Co Meath.
The event, which is part of the Tokyo Olympic qualifying process, features both male and female teams from across Europe. In the men’s draw, Ireland will take on Scotland, Lithuania and Ukraine with each Nation fielding two teams. In the women’s side, there are high hopes for the team of Isabelle Carey and Alex Graves (pictured) who will compete against the highly rated Denmark, Estonia and Slovakia.
Carey is coming off the back of a hugely successful NCAA College career in California where she has captained UCLA to an unbeaten season. She also picked up the prestigious PAC-10 Student-Athlete of the Year Award. Her partner, Graves is transitioning from the indoor court where she recently represented Ireland in the Small Countries Association’s Championship in Luxembourg. The UCD hitter said, “I am really excited to play with Izzy this week, we won the Battle for the Bay Tournament last week and we are building a nice rapport. Hopefully we can play the underdog card well and pull off a shock.”
The experienced duo of Miriam Gormally and Marie-Claire Sabogal will be Ireland’s second team in the event.
International Tour player Oisin McArdle is back in Ireland to represent his home nation where he will team up with Australian-based Alex Gibbons. McArdle commented, “It’s great to be back in Ireland and pulling on the green jersey. I am looking forward to getting up to the Boyne Valley and representing my country.”
Each nation plays their A team against their rivals’ A team, whilst the B teams also face off. If, after these games the score is 1-1, a golden match takes place. The tournament format is high stakes with a double elimination knock out structure.
Lining up for Ireland will be:
Women’s Team 1
Isabelle Carey
Alexandra Graves
Women’s Team 2
Miriam Gormally
Marie-Claire Sabogal
Men’s Team 1
Alex Gibbons
Oisin McArdle
Men’s Team 2
Benny O’Regan
Grzegorz Kaczmarek
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