In the quarterfinals of the tournament, our team defeated experienced Czechs Barbora Hermanova and Marie-Sara Stochlova 2-0 (23:21, 21:13) in 41 minutes.
The match started with changes. After A. Raupelytė’s excellent series of servings, the Lithuanians immediately pulled away 6:1. However, the Czech athletes soon responded with their own successful section and equalized the result. At the end of the set, the Czech volleyball players were one point away from the goal (21:20), but already then M. Paulikienė and A. Raupelyte showed their mastery and scored three points in a row.
In the second set, the Lithuanians, who gained momentum, did not leave any hope for their rivals and celebrated a historic victory.
In the semifinals, M. Paulikienė and A. Raupelytė will play against Italians Valentina Gottardi and Marta Menegatti, who have the fourth ranking in the championship. Lithuanians have played with this pair twice – in April 2023, the Italians won 2-1, and in June of this year – 2-0.
Until now, the best result of Lithuanian beach volleyball players in the European Championships was the fifth place last year.
The semifinal will be played at 2:15 p.m. in The Hague. The match for third place will start at 19:45 and the final at 21:00.
Lithuanian beach volleyball players Patrikas Stankevičius and Audrius Knašas took ninth place in the men’s tournament. This is the highest Lithuanian position in men’s competitions throughout history. In the round of 16, our team lost 0-2 (14:21, 23:25) to Norwegians Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen.
The Lithuanians did not find their game in the first set, but in the second they almost created a miracle. Trailing 17:20, the Lithuanians showed a couple of times a self-sacrificing game and managed to score impressive points, eventually equalizing the result. However, in the continued set, success followed the Norwegians.
P. Stankevičius and A. Knaš received 460 world ranking points for the ninth place.
The prize fund of the European Beach Volleyball Championship consists of 200 thousand. US dollars.
2024-08-17 11:50:39