Jurmala, Latvia. The excitement of the opening day of CEV EuroBeachVolley 2020 made way today for the competitive nature of the world’s best beach volleyball teams to shine through as the stakes of a next round place became palpable for the Women’s side of the competition and the men followed suit.
If you’ve missed any of the action from the action-packed second day of the competition, here are the highlights of yet another exciting match day from Jurmala, Latvia. Moreover, the recordings of today’s streamed matches are now available on EuroVolley.TV and YouTube – European Volleyball, while the official competition website EuroBeachVolley.CEV.eu is the place for full match statistics and more.
Men’s teams get on the court for the first time
If the first day of the competition was reserved exclusively for the women’s matches, on this second day the 32 men teams got on the sand for their first matches of the Pool stage. Among them were last year’s gold medal winners and this year’s favourites, the Norwegian “Beach Volley Vikings” Anders Mol & Christian Sørum who faced the Austrian pair of Alexander Huber/Christoph Dressler (seeded 32nd).
Unexpectedly for many, the Norwegians struggled a lot to win their opening game, as they seemed unable to find their rhythm, and for big parts of the second set, Huber/Dressler were 2-3 points ahead. In the end, the shock upset did not happen, and the Vikings got a 2 set win (21-13, 26-24). “It was tough, but fun to play. First set was okay, but in the second set the Austrians played well. I lost my rhythm in the second set a couple of times in attack, then hit the net. But we managed to win in the end and I’m happy with it,” said Christian Sørum on their first win of the tournament. Next up for them is one of the most anticipated battles of the pool stages, as the Beach Volley Vikings will face the Lion King, Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and teammate J?nis Šm?di?š.
“Beach Volley Vikings” Anders Mol & Christian Sørum
Elsewhere on the courts of Majori Beach in Jurmala, “Mr. SkyBall” Adrian Carambula seemed to be enjoying every second spent on the court in front of the Latvian fans. “Fans love me here and I love them back. During the camps which I’ve done with Samoilovs I met many players who play here also recreationally. So I love them, and I really appreciate their support. I already came here for the European Championships in 2017 and I really like the fans and atmosphere here and the fact that we can play at the beach, because sometimes we are put in big cities, so it’s nice for a change to play actual beach volleyball at the beach. All games here are tough, but we played a clean game. I play with different partner than regular, so I’m happy that Jakob Windisch stepped up and that we were able to win this game,” said Adrian Carambula after their win against the Swiss duo of Marco Krattiger/Florian Breer 2-0 (21-18, 21-17)
No match day without an upset in Jurmala, and that seemed to be the case today as well as the Italian duo of Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo, three-time European champions, lost to Aliaksandr Dziadkou/Pavel Piatrushka from Belarus, seeded 28th, in three sets 1-2 (21-11, 17-21, 12-15). For the full table of results from the men’s first day of the competition click HERE.
Fan favourite Adrian Carambula
Pool winners qualified into the Round of 16
The second match day in the women’s competition was a very important one as direct access to the Round of 16 was on the table. The favourites of the tournaments took advantage of the opportunity given by the wins from the first day, among them German star duo Kozuch/Ludwig, “It’s never easy, even if the score looks like this. At the beginning of the set and also further they played harder. It’s the EuroBeachVolley so they are always coming back we had to be mentally strong and fought for every point until the end. We are very happy that we are the first in the pool, so tomorrow we are going to play only one match, so there is time to relax and recover.” said Laura Ludwig.
So, with things moving fast here are the eight pool winners that booked their places in the Round of 16: Hüberli/Betschart (SUI), Liliana/Elsa (ESP), Kravcenoka/Graudina (LAT), Makroguzova/Kholomina (RUS), Bieneck/Schneider (GER), Hermannova/Slukova (CZE), Keizer/Meppelink (NED), Kozuch/Ludwig (GER). These teams will be facing the winners of the playoff matches (Round of 24). For a full overview on today’s result for the women’s competition click HERE.
Hermannova/Slukova (CZE) celebrate their good start at the European Championships
Results MEVZA Teams – Women
Pool Stage:
Birlova/Ukolova RUS – Kubickova/Kvapilova CZE 0-2 (12-21, 23-25)
Kozuch/Ludwig GER [2] – Kubickova/Kvapilova CZE 2-0 (21-12, 21-12)
Heidrich/Vergé-Dépré, A. SUI – Strauss N./Strauss T. AUT 2-0 (21-14, 21-18
Strauss N./Strauss T. AUT – Bocharova/Voronina RUS 0-2 (18-21, 13-21)
Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig AUT – Dabizha/Rudykh RUS 1-2 (19-21, 21-17, 13-15)
Lehtonen/Ahtiainen FIN – Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig AUT 2-0 (21-12, 24-22)
Hermannova/Slukova CZE –Namike/Brailko LAT 2-0 (21-16, 21-16)
Hermannova/Slukova CZE – Menegatti/Orsi Toth ITA 2-0 (21-19, 21-15)
1st round:
17-Sep, 11:30 Kubickova/Kvapilova CZE – Jupiter/Chamereau FRA
17-Sep, TBD Hermannova/Slukova CZE – Winner of match #38 (NED – RUS)
Results MEVZA Teams – Men
Mol A./Sørum, C. NOR – Huber A./Dressler AUT 2-0 (21-13, 26-24)
Dumek/Bercik CZE – Doppler/Horst AUT 0-2 (13-21, 21-23)
Likholetov/Bykanov RUS – Pristauz/Hörl AUT 2-1 (12-21, 21-16, 20-18)
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