Americans Wheeler/Dykstra, Russians Myskiv/Samoday Take Vaduz Gold

  0 Wendy Mayer | August 13th, 2018 | FIVB World Tour, News, Pro Beach

Vaduz One Star

It wasn’t an easy road for Allie Wheeler/Lara Dykstra, but the Americans won their first World Tour medal as a pairing on Saturday.

The 14th seeded duo, which started the tournament with a tiebreak win in the opening qualifying round, went 6-1 en route to the title in their first FIVB tournament together.

After topping Italians Carolina Ferraris/Francesca Michieletto 21-13, 20-22, 15-13 to open the tournament, the pair solidified its spot in the main draw with a sweep of Switzerland’s Kim Huber/Tatjana Greber. Wheeler/Dykstra won their third in a row to open Pool C play, before stumbling against Greeks Konstantina Tsopoulou/Dimitra Manavi in the pool title match           (21-16, 21-17).

The Americans bounced back in the Round of 12, topping Sweden’s Fanny Lindstrom/Sara Malmstrom (21-13, 21-11). In the quarterfinals the pair hung on for a tiebreak win over Austria’s Dorina Klinger/Ronja Klinger (21-18, 16-21, 15-8). Finally, a sweep of Swiss duo Esmee Bobner/Zoe Verge-Depre (21-19, 21-19) put the pair in the finals.

With the gold medal within reach, Wheeler/Dykstra came through with a 21-13, 21-17 victory over 10th-seeded Agata Ceynowa/Martyna Kloda of Poland. Wheeler is in her first season as a pro after completing her senior season at USC in May.

“Above all, we used the tournament to grow as a team and gain confidence in ourselves,” the pair said. “We succeeded well and we are very happy that we could win one of our first overseas tournament.”

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GOLD 🥇 at the FIVB Vaduz 1 ⭐️! What an unreal experience playing in my first international tournament! Had so much fun playing and traveling with my buddy @laradykstra you’re a stud 👊💥 thank you friends and family for all the support and messages throughout the tournament! Excited to sightsee tomorrow and then head home to prep for the Manhattan Beach AVP! 🏐😎🇺🇸 #wheelsup #gousa

A post shared by Αllie Wheeler (@alwheels12) on

Ceynowa/Kloda went 5-1 en route to the final, including four tiebreak matches. The Poles dropped their Pool B opener but rallied with five wins in a row, coming from behind in two of them. The silver medal marked the first FIVB podium finish for the Polish side.

Manavi/Tsopoulou captured their first FIVB medal as a duo with a 21-14, 10-21, 15-13 win over Bobner/Verge-Depre in the bronze medal match.

On the men’s side, Russians Taras Myskiv/Valeriy Samoday pocketed their second straight gold, following the winning effort in Ljubljana with a qualifier to victory run in Vaduz.

The gold medalists kicked off the tournament with a sweep in qualifying Round 2. Myskiv/Samoday tacked on two more straight set wins to take the Pool B title, skipping ahead to the quarterfinals. A tiebreak win over Ukraine’s Oleksii Denin/Denys Denysenko (20-22, 21-17, 24-22) in the quarters pitted Samoday against his former partner Sergiy Popov of Ukraine. The Russians defeated Popov/Vladyslav Iemelianchyk 31-29, 21-14 to make the title match. Once there, it took a comeback victory over fifth seeded Swiss pair Florian Breer/Yves Haussener (29-31, 21-17, 15-11) to nab the duo its second straight gold.

“We are obviously extremely happy to win our second tournament in two weeks,” Myskiv/Samoday said. “We will continue to work hard in order to keep improving each day.”

The silver medal marked the second podium finish in a row for the Swiss pair, following a bronze medal in Ljubljana last week. Breer/Haussener won Pool D and outlasted countrymen Quentin Metral/Simon Hagenbuch (14-21, 21-18, 28-26) in the quarters and Polish pair Mateusz Paszkowski/Mateusz Lysikowski (24-22, 21-19) in the semis to reach the matchup with the Russians.

Popov/Iemelianchyk notched their second FIVB medal of the year, following a gold at the Porec One Star , with the bronze in Vaduz. The Ukrainians topped Paszkowski/Lysikowski 21-12, 21-16 for third place.

 

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About Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer has worked in athletics media relations for the last 20 years. The Northwest Missouri State alumna is currently senior writer for Volleymob.com after spending the last 15 years with Purdue athletics.

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