21/12/2018 20:00
Home teams reign supreme in Moscow, USA and Brazil crown snow debut with ninth place
CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour 2019 - Moscow
Moscow, Russia, December 21, 2018. The Main Draw of the CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour 2019 stop in Moscow got underway on Friday, with a number of exciting matches determining the teams progressing to the quarterfinals that will open the programme on Saturday. There was much attention especially online, with the live streaming available on EuroVolleyTV proving extremely popular.
There was obviously much interest for the debut on snow of 2008 Olympic champion Lloy Ball. Together with another three players from USA, Ball needed two sets only to beat his Russian opponents Vsevolod Bobrikov/Vladislav Mikhalev/Vadim Smorchkov/Valeriy Durnin, with a double 15-8. However, Ball & Co. lost their next match 0-2 to a team from Slovenia. In an effort to stay in contention for a spot in the quarterfinals, Ball played a Russian team featuring reigning Snow Volleyball European champion Ruslan Daianov. The Russian side was much stronger and Ball had to be content with finishing his campaign in ninth place.
To wrap up the day, the Brazilian team Ferreira de Paula/Oscar Brandao/Vinicius Freitas/Gaudi Ley put up a fight against Russia’s Bobrikov/Smorchkov/Mikhalev/Durnin. The South Americans came back from one set down to force a tiebreaker and even had a match point but the younger Russians, much more at ease with the challenging weather conditions, responded well to seal a 2-1 win. As a result, the team from Brazil finished the tournament in ninth place as well.
The men’s home teams from Russia were the dominant force, securing six of the eight spots available in the men’s quarterfinals. The only foreign teams still in contention for the medals represent Slovenia and Italy.
The women’s tournament is a lot more international when it comes to the composition of the quarterfinals, which feature two teams from Russia and Lithuania, one from Turkey, wild card holders from USA and Kazakhstan as well as one team from the Czech Republic including former ‘Queens of the Snow’ Michaela Knoblochova and Anna Dostalova.
Saturday’s programme includes the quarterfinals, semis and all medal matches, with live streaming available on EuroVolleyTV. The eventual winners of the competition will travel home sharing a cheque worth € 1,200.
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