23/03/2018 22:21
Women’s Round of 16 all set at #EuroSnowVolley
2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship
Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, March 23, 2018. The line-up for the first single elimination round in the women’s main draw of the 2018 CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship is all set, after all pool matches were played on Friday despite the tough weather conditions and the lots were drawn to determine the fixtures for the Round of 16.
While six of the eight pools had their clear-cut favourites, and they all lived up to the expectations by claiming two victories each, the standing of the remaining groups resulted from a tiebreak on point ratio among the three participating teams.
Pool E was by far the most competitive one in the tournament, as one single point decided the final classification in the group. 20th-seeded Ukrainians Olena Borysenko and Olga Dovgopol started their campaign with a 2-0 (11-9, 11-8) upset of home favourites Elisabeth Klopf/Viktoria Mair, seeded fifth. After that, the 12th-seeded Hungarians Eszter Lutter/Panna Györi joined the race with a 2-0 (11-9, 11-9) win against Borysenko/Dovgopol. In the decisive match, Klopf/Mair also achieved a 2-0 (11-9, 11-9) victory over Lutter/Györi, but fell one point short of completely tying the final standings. Therefore, the Ukrainians and the Hungarians took the first two places and advanced to the next round, leaving the Austrians behind to the disappointment of the home crowd in Wagrain-Kleinarl.
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The three teams in Pool D also ended up resolving their issues on point ratio, as all three of them claimed a 2-0 win apiece. In this pool, however, the pre-favourites, fourth-seeded Silvia Poszmikova and Romana Jurenkova of Slovakia, were very convincing in the decisive game for a 2-0 (11-3, 11-5) victory over Slovenia’s Bernarda Baron/Manica Bulc, which sufficed them for the first place, leaving Norway’s Janne Kongshavn/Kristine Wiig in second and the Slovenians in third and out of contention.
18th-seeded Sarah Leemann/Claudia Schmid from Switzerland claimed straight-set victories in the first two legs in Pool G, leaving Italy’s Cristiana Parenzan/Tania Ferrazzo and Lithuania’s Ieva Vasiliauskaite/Gerda Grudzinskaite in a head-to-head battle for the remaining vacancy in the next round. The Lithuanians mastered a 2-0 (15-13, 11-8) win to stay in contention.
“We lost our first match because of our own mistakes,” Vasiliauskaite commented. “But now we are so happy that we improved our game and managed to qualify for the next round. I know the opponents will get tougher and tougher, but if you want to win the gold medal, you should be able to beat everybody.”
The other two Lithuanian pairs also qualified for the Round of 16, both from Pool H. The action in this group started with an all-Lithuanian clash, in which Urte Andriukaityte/Irina Zobnina claimed a 2-1 (3-11, 11-7, 11-8) come-from-behind victory over Ieva Dumbauskaite and Monika Povilaityte. After that, both shut out the third team in the pool, Romania’s Zeynep Koc/Andreea Gabriela Savastita, to progress in the competition.
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With the other two Austrian duos having failed to qualify, all hopes of the home fans lay in the hands of Marilena Preiml and Maria Obernosterer. They had lost their first match in Pool F as well and it was all down to their encounter with Romania’s Elena-Andreea Petrosanu/Ioana-Rebeca Alexandru to make sure Austria would have at least one team in the women’s Round of 16. Preiml and Obernosterer did not waste this last chance and, with a 2-0 (11-8, 11-4) victory, took the second place in the pool after Germany’s Karoline Fröhlich and Lena Overländer.
“We are really happy that we made it out of our pool and now we are hungry for more,” Preiml said. “We will give everything. It is our home place, our home crowd, and this should be positive for us.”
In the remaining pools, top-seeded Anna Dostalova/Michaela Knoblochova from Czech Republic, last year’s Queens of the Snow, their successors Bugra Eryildiz/Aleyna Vence from Turkey, and Russia’s Liudmila Dayanova/Maria Ushkova topped the standings with two wins each, leaving Latvia’s Alise Lece/Ilze Liepinlauska, Slovakia’s Lenka Vandakova/Alica Bertova and Russia’s Ekaterina Syrtseva/Ksenia Khakimzanova in second, but with precious tickets to the single elimination rounds in hand.
Women’s main draw action continues on Saturday with the Round of 16, starting at 11:00 CET.
Click here for further information or visit www.snowvolleyball.com
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