CEV Continental Beach Volleyball Cup-Swiss hurrah in Illichivsk
Switzerland qualified for the final stage of the inaugural CEV Continental Beach Volleyball Cup after edging Great Britain in the final game of the Zonal Phase tournament that came to a close today in Illichivsk.
It was actually a very close affair, with three out of four matches ending with a tie-break and “crazy” scores registered in the deciding games where Mullin/Dampney got the provisional 2-1 after defeating Goricanec/Graessli (29-27, 18-21, 15-12) right before Forrer/Vergé-Dépré clipped the point for the 3-1 win, cruising past Boulton and Johns (28-26, 16-21, 15-8).
Bronze in Illichivsk went to Poland who needed four games to defeat hosts Ukraine. Galyna Osheyko and Viktoriia Smetaniuk seized the sole Ukrainian win this afternoon by beating Kolosinska/Brzostek in the second match (21-18, 11-21, 15-13). As the score stood at 2-1 for Poland, Kolosinska and Brzostek stamped a massive 21-11, 21-5 to outclass Baburina/Makhno and celebrate their bronze medal in Illichivsk. The girls mentored by Vladimir Kutsenko were nevertheless quite happy with their result especially as they will be able to continue their campaign in the Continental Cup at the semifinal stage scheduled for next year and where they will be joined also by Finland that had the upper hand with Serbia in the classification match 5/6.
