Antalya, Turkey, July 11, 2019. 10 duos won two matches apiece as the first two legs of women’s CEV U22 Beach Volleyball European Championship 2019 pool action were played on Thursday. The teams of Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Spain, as well as both of Switzerland’s pairs advanced to the single elimination stage by securing a spot among the top three of their pool, to join the teams of Austria, Greece and the other Czech duo, who will all progress from the only three-team pool.
The Netherlands were one of the first teams to secure their spot in the playoff rounds by claiming two victories on Thursday. 16th-seeded Emma Piersma and Pleun Ypma dominated Pool A with straight-set wins over Denmark and Russia. In their first game, the Dutch managed a 2-0 (21-16, 21-7) win over Freja Holme Barkler and Astrid Elisabeth Mellmølle, seeded 17th. Then, they hammered out a 2-0 (21-12, 21-17) shutout of bottom-seeded Anastasiia Frolova and Aleksandra Ganenko, Russia’s second pair.
“It was a really good day. At the beginning of the first match we had to start up a bit, but after the first set we came into the game and the second set was really good,” Ypma said. “We knew that the second game was going to be hard, because of the good opponents, but we made a really good plan with our coach and it has worked really well, so we are happy about it.”
“Our main goal is to get in the quarters and then every single game is hard, so we will have to fight,” Piersma added. “It is really cool here. It is warm and sweaty, but we like it because we never get this weather in Holland. The venue is cool; it is a really nice setup and there is nothing to distract you.”
The other Russian team, multiple underage European Championship medallists Mariia Bocharova and Maria Voronina, seeded second, and last year’s bronze medallists Daniela Álvarez Mendoza and María Belén Carro Márquez de Acuña of Spain scored two wins apiece in Pool B and will face each other on Friday for the first place in the pool and a direct ticket to the round of 16.
Latvia’s Anete Namiķe and Varvara Brailko, seeded third, and Lithuania’s Jekaterina Kovalskaja and Rugile Grudzinskaite came out of the first competition day with two wins each in Pool C. So did the fourth seed, France’s Clémence Vieira and Pia Szewczyk, in Pool D.
Clémence Vieira of France in action
In Pool E, however, seed number five Germany were upset by Switzerland’s second team. 28th-seeded Menia Bentele and Anna Lutz came back from a set down to earn a 2-1 (16-21, 21-11, 15-12) victory over Julika Hoffmann and Sarah Schulz and followed up with a 2-0 (21-7, 21-18) shutout of 12th-seeded Norwegians Frida Berntsen and Rugile Lavickyte.
In a similar situation, the bottom-ranked team in Pool F, 27th-seeded Czechs Marie-Sara Stochlova and Miroslava Dunarova, produced straight-set wins over sixth-seeded Dalila Varrassi and Claudia Scampoli of Italy and 11th-seeded Valma Prihti and Aliisa Vuorinen of Finland.
The first Swiss duo, seventh-seeded Esmée Böbner and Zoé Vergé-Dépré, and 10th-seeded Poles Martyna Kloda and Agata Ceynowa got the day’s job in Pool G. It was particularly dramatic for Kloda and Ceynowa, as they survived two tie-breaks along the way. They came back from a set down against England’s Anaya Evans and Ellie Austin to take a 2-1 (15-21, 21-16, 15-12) victory in their first game. Then they did it again, but this time the third set of their second match, the longest one of the day (66 minutes), went deep into extra time, before the Poles could stop the clocks at 2-1 (13-21, 21-18, 19-17) against Kristine Briede and Vanesa Grosberga of Latvia.
Pool H is the only one with three teams, so all of them will make the next stage by default. On Thursday, ninth-seeded Ronja Klinger and Katharina Holzer of Austria defeated Greece in straight sets, but then Eleni Baka and Maria Klepkou came up with a 2-0 upset of eighth-seeded Czechs Tereza Kotlasova and Daniela Resova to stay well within reach of the second place in the pool standings.
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