Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, March 18, 2017. The two top-seeded teams at the fifth stop of the 2017 CEV Snow Volleyball European Tour cruised through their Saturday matches in Kranjska Gora and secured their spots in Sunday’s semi-finals.

The #1 seed, Anna Dostalova/Michaela Knoblochova from the Czech Republic started their campaign on Slovenian snow directly from the second round, where they managed a 2-0 (11-9, 11-2) win against Italy’s Cinzia Zaninello/Carlotta Cervella. In the third round, Dostalova/Knoblochova, who are currently topping the CEV European Ranking, achieved one more shutout - 2-0 (11-4, 11-6) against the fifth-seeded Tiana Nicolaus/Anika Wucherer from Germany.

Second-seeded Silvia Poszmikova/Eva Elekova from Slovakia achieved similar results on Saturday and are awaiting the names of their opponents in Sunday’s semis as well. They started the tournament off with a 2-0 (11-6, 11-6) victory over Slovenia’s Bernarda Baron/Tina Bukovec. In the next round, Poszmikova/Elekova disappointed the home crowd again by beating Slovenia’s best-seeded duo, Klara Omovšek/Tjaša Žagar, at #3 in the main draw. After achieving a very impressive result in the first set, the Slovak pair made sure nothing stood in their way to the semi-finals and closed the match with a 2-0 (11-0, 11-8) win.

“It was tough to move on the surface, because the snow is melting and it is really deep,” commented Silvia Poszmikova at the end of the day. “Other than that, the weather was perfect. It was really hot, it was sunny and the atmosphere was great! On the snow, chances are always the same for everybody. The snow makes it flat for all, but we believe we can make it to the final and take revenge from the Czech team for losing to them in Špindlerův Mlýn three weeks ago. So it’s payback time!”

“The weather is perfect, the place is beautiful and we are really happy to play here,” added Eva Elekova. “We will enjoy the Bockvieber Players Party tonight, but just for a little while, because we would love to go all the way to the top tomorrow.”

Six more teams from five different countries – Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Slovenia (with two pairs) – are still alive in the competition and will be competing in the last two legs of the losers’ bracket on Sunday morning for the last two vacant semi-final spots.

For further information on the European Tour, click here or visit SnowVolleyball.com.