Women’s #EuroBeachVolley Semis Set; Men Prep for Round of 16

CEV Beach Volleyball European Championships

• July 17-21, 2018
• The Netherlands
• Men’s Schedule/Results
• Women’s Schedule/Results

The European Championships podium will be filled with new faces on the women’s side as defending bronze medalists Chantal Laboureur/Julia Sude were the final of the three to fall at the 2018 edition of the event.

The Germans fell to Spain’s Liliana Fernandez/Elsa Baquerizo in the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon, the second meeting of the tournament for the pairs, following a straight set win for Laboureur/Sude in pool play. This was a much tighter affair, extending to tiebreak after the Germans took Set 1 23-21. The Spaniards rallied winning 22-20, 15-10 despite a reported injury to Liliana.

“We are just so happy right now, we are in the semifinals again! We have worked hard for it, so I am just really happy right now,” Elsa said. “Laboureur/Sude have had a very good season so far, they were a very tough opponent in both matches. Today after the first set we managed to regain our focus and we were very consistent in the tiebreak and this allowed us to win.”

Czech pair Kristyna Kolocova/Michala Kvapilova, which won the 2017 silver medal, was eliminated during the Round of 24, while the defending gold medalists Najda Glenzke/Julia Grobner of Germany retired from the game last year.

Joining Liliana/Elsa in the podium race are Swiss pair Nina Betschart/Tanja Huberli, Dutch duo Sanne Keizer/Madelein Meppelink and Barbora Hermannova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic.

Like their semifinal foes from Spain, Betschart/Huberli had to fight for their spot in the final four, rallying past Germans Victoria Bieneck/Isabel Schneider in tiebreak (18-21, 21-11, 15-12).

Keizer/Meppelink swept past Spain’s Angela Lobato/Amaranta Navarro 21-10, 21-17, while Hermannova/Slukova had an equally smooth road to the semis, outdoing Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova/Ekaterina Birlova 21-13, 21-17.

The second semifinal match between the Dutch and the Czechs is a rematch of the Pool B title match, which Keizer/Meppelink won 21-15, 21-16.

In men’s action, the field was sliced from 24 to 16. The first two members of the final eight claimed their spots.

Dutch duo Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen and Latvians Janis Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs earned free passes to the Round of 16 as pool title winners and took advantage of their fresh legs, cruising to sweeps to move on to the quarterfinals. Brouwer/Meeuwsen downed Frenchmen Youssef Krou/Quincy Aye (24-22, 21-15) and Smedins/Samoilovs took out Polish duo Mariusz Prudel/Jakub Szalankiewicz 21-19, 21-18. The Dutch pair are the defending silver medalists, while the Latvians claimed the 2017 bronze.

The remaining six Round of 16 matches will be played on Saturday afternoon, followed by the quarterfinals. The men’s semis and finals are set for Sunday.

Still to play in the Round of 16 are:

• Oleg Stoyanoskiy/Igor Velichko (Russia) vs. Adrian Heidrich/Mirco Gerson (Switzerland)
• Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov (Russia) vs. Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner (Czech Republic)
• Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak (Poland) vs. Christiaan Varenhorst/Jasper Bouter (Netherlands)
• Anders Mol/Christian Sorum (Norway) vs. Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle (Belgium)
• Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira (Spain) vs. Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl (Poland)
• Nico Beeler/Marco Krattiger (Switzerland) vs. Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs (Latvia)

Six of the eight Round of 24 matches went to tiebreak, with Fijalek/Bryl and Plavins/Tocs the exceptions.

Krou/Aye and Koekelkoren/van Walle each rallied after dropping their opening sets, with the latter going to extra points in tiebreak at 17-15 to finally clinch the win over Norway’s Mathias Bernsten/Hendrik Mol.

Defending champions Paolo Nicolai/Daniele Lupo (Italy) are out of the competition after falling to Heidrich/Gerson 21-19, 21-23, 15-12 in the Round of 24.

Women’s Results

Men’s Results