Herrera/Gavira, Smedins/Samoilovs Aim for Second Euro Beach Titles

  0 Wendy Mayer | July 21st, 2018 | Beach, European volleyball, International Volleyball, News

CEV Beach Volleyball European Championships

With two members of the quarterfinals field already decided on Friday, the remaining six matches finished up on Saturday and the field was further reduced to four, setting up Sunday’s race for the podium.

Dutch duo Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen and Latvians Janis Smedins/Aleksandrs Samoilovs cruised to sweeps to move on to the quarterfinals on Friday. The Dutch pair are the defending silver medalists, while the Latvians claimed the 2017 bronze.

The pairs faced off in the quarterfinals with the Latvians upsetting homestanding Brouwer/Meeuwsen 13-21, 22-20, 15-10 to stay in the medal race.

Joining the lone returning 2017 medalists in the final four are Norway’s Anders Mol/Christian Sorum, Russia’s Konstantin Semenov/Ilya Leshukov and Spain’s Pablo Herrera/Adrian Gavira.

Herrera/Gavira will be looking for their first European title since 2013, while Smedins/Samoilovs are aiming to add to their 2015 crown.

It took a pair of tiebreak wins for Mol/Sorum to make the semifinals, first against Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren/Tom van Walle (21-18, 19-21, 15-11) and then against Dutch pair Christian Varenhorst/Jasper Bouter in the quarters (13-21, 21-16, 15-11).

Semenov/Leshukov made their way through with a pair of straight set affairs, besting Czechs Ondrej Perusic/David Schweiner and countrymen Oleg Stoyanovskiy/Igor Velichko.

The Spaniards also picked up two sweeps, ousting Poland’s Grzegorz Fijalek/Michal Bryl and Switzerland’s Nico Beeler/Marco Krattiger.

Four of the Round of 16 matches went the distance, with Stoyanovskiy/Velichko, Varenhorst/Bouter, Mol/Sorum and Beeler/Krattiger coming out with the wins. Beeler/Krattiger outdid Latvians Martins Plavins/Edgars Tocs and Varenhorst/Bouter rallied past Poland’s Piotr Kantor/Bartosz Losiak after dropping their opening sets of the round.

Sunday’s semifinals pit Herrera/Gavira vs. Mol/Sorum in a rematch of last weekend’s Gstaad gold medal match, while Semenov/Leshukov will meet Smedins/Samoilovs.

 

Results

Quarterfinals
68 21-Jul 17:00 The Hague Smedins/Samoilovs LAT [7] Brouwer/Meeuwsen NED [2] 2-1 (13-21, 22-20, 15-10) 0:48
67 21-Jul 19:45 Rotterdam Semenov/Leshukov RUS [19] Stoyanovskiy/Velichko RUS [6] 2-0 (26-24, 21-17) 0:38
66 21-Jul 16:00 Apeldoorn Mol, A./Sørum, C. NOR [12] Varenhorst/Bouter NED [9] 2-1 (13-21, 21-16, 15-11) 0:45
65 21-Jul 17:15 Utrecht Beeler/Krattiger SUI [17] Herrera/Gavira ESP [8] 0-2 (19-21, 18-21) 0:37
Round of 16
64 20-Jul 19:45 The Hague Brouwer/Meeuwsen NED [2] Krou/Aye FRA [24] 2-0 (24-22, 21-15) 0:40
63 20-Jul 20:35 The Hague Smedins/Samoilovs LAT [7] Prudel/Szalankiewicz POL [14] 2-0 (21-19, 21-18) 0:39
62 21-Jul 16:45 Rotterdam Stoyanovskiy/Velichko RUS [6] Heidrich/Gerson SUI [13] 2-1 (21-17, 16-21, 15-12) 0:43
61 21-Jul 15:45 Rotterdam Semenov/Leshukov RUS [19] Perusic/Schweiner CZE [16] 2-0 (22-20, 21-12) 0:36
60 21-Jul 13:00 Apeldoorn Kantor/Losiak POL [4] Varenhorst/Bouter NED [9] 1-2 (21-15, 16-21, 10-15) 0:47
59 21-Jul 12:00 Apeldoorn Mol, A./Sørum, C. NOR [12] Koekelkoren/van Walle BEL [18] 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 15-11) 0:51
58 21-Jul 13:15 Utrecht Herrera/Gavira ESP [8] Fijalek/Bryl POL [10] 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) 0:37
57 21-Jul 14:15 Utrecht Beeler/Krattiger SUI [17] Plavins/Tocs LAT [11] 2-1 (15-21, 21-19, 16-14) 0:46

Leave a Reply

avatar

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.

Read More »

Don't want to miss anything?

Subscribe to our newsletter and receive our latest updates!