On Friday in Vilnius, on the field at White bridge, the preliminary stage tournament of the CEV "Cup of Nations" beach volleyball has started. Both Lithuanian national teams started the tournament victoriously.
The Lithuanian beach volleyball players, who started fighting from the second round due to their highest ranking, defeated the Estonian team 2-0 and reached the semi-finals.
The second pairs of teams entered the field first. Ieva Dumbauskaitė and Ieva Vasiliauskaitė beat Eva Lissa Kuivonen and Liisa-Lotta Jurgenson 2-1 (20:22, 21:16, 15:6).
The Lithuanians led 20:17 in the first set, but then lost five points in a row and the whole set at the same time. However, from the second set I. Dumbauskaitė and I. Vasiliauskaitė did not let go of their initiative and won in three sets.
"We had a big lead in the first set and maybe we started thinking about the second set a little too early. There was a lot of stress, because it was the first competition in Lithuania for our couple, and I. Vasiliauskaitei's debut in the Lithuanian national team. However, we remained a team, fought for each other and won. It is very fun to play in this weather in front of so many spectators in your city", the volleyball players were happy.
I. Dumbauskaitė does not hide - the goals of the Lithuanian national team are the highest in this tournament, and the duo of her and I. Vasiliauskaitė is determined to help the team's leaders Monika Paulikiene and Aina Raupelyte.
In the confrontation between the strongest teams that took place later, M. Paulikienė and A. Raupelytė 2-0 (21:12, 21:15) left no hope for Liisa Remmele and Heleene Hollas.
The Estonian national team reached the second round after defeating the representatives of Romania 2-0 on Friday morning.
Lithuanians will find out the semifinalists on Saturday morning. Mūsiškės at 15 p.m. will meet the winner of the pair of Austria and Romania. The final will be held on Sunday.
The Slovenian national team reached the semi-finals in the most direct way. In the first round, she defeated the Slovakian team 2-0, and in the second round, after the golden set, she defeated the Austrian team 2-1.
For the remaining places in the semi-finals, the Estonians will play the Slovaks on Saturday, and the Austrians will play the Romanians.
In the men's tournament, the Lithuanian national team also has the highest ranking, so it also started from the second round.
The Ukrainian beach volleyball players became the opponents of the Lithuanians, who beat the Hungarian team 2-1 with great difficulty.
In the first meeting, Ukrainians Ivan Datsiuk and Ivan Lichatsky beat Bence Streli and Balazs Benko 2-1 (19:21, 21:18, 15:12), and in the second, Sergej Popov and Maksym Gladun after a real drama 2-1 (16:21, 24 :22, 16:14) broke Csanad Petika and Domonkos Doczi.
The confrontation of the Lithuanian national team with Ukraine started with the match of our second pairs Robert Juchnevičius and Artūrs Vasiliev against I. Datsiuk and I. Lichatskius. Having shown excellent form, the Lithuanians won a convincing victory 2-0 (21:13, 21:11) and put the Lithuanian national team ahead.
Patrikas Stankevičius and Audrius Knašas lost the first set in the confrontation between the team leaders for Ukrainians, but later, supported by full stands, straightened up and won 2-1 (18:21, 21:15, 15:10) against S. Popova and Maksym Gladunas. Thus, the Lithuanian national team defeated Ukraine 2-0 and reached the semi-finals.
The other semi-final pairs will be announced on Saturday. In the first round, the Belgian national team defeated Gibraltar 2-0, and Greece defeated the Croatians 2-1 after the golden set.
On Saturday morning, in the second round, the confrontation between the teams of Belgium and Greece will take place. The other teams will play in the loser's bracket and will try to earn places in the semi-finals.
The winners of the "Cup of Nations" preliminary stage tournament will receive tickets to the final stage, which will take place on June 13-16 in Jūrmala (Latvija). The winners of the final stage will win a ticket for the country to the Olympic Games in Paris.
