2012 Technion Challenge Beach Volleyball Cup, Day 1 round up – Volleyball news
The opening day of the 2012 Technion Challenge Cup in Haifa, Israel featured four men’s matches.
The tournament started off on Tuesday, April 3 and it is scheduled to be continued till Thursday, April 5. Following the same game pattern, the women duos also played 8 matches on day 1.
In the day opener, the tandem of Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins from Latvia drew a lot of attention. They were joined by Germany competitors Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik on the centre court. The Germans demonstrated stellar performance in the opening
set and held off Latvian pair for 21-17 win.
However, the Latvians came out firing in the second set. They produced powerful aces and deceived German players with their tricky bum passes. The situation got better for Latvia as Plavins and Smedins pulled off success in the second set, 21-13.
With second set win, Latvian pair got its full form back and came strong on the opponents. German team tried to bounce back but faced utmost resistance from the other side. Eventually, they could not manage to overcome Latvian pair and suffered the loss
of third set, 11-15. Despite having a bad start in the game, the Latvian pair seized victory in the opening affair of the tournament.
The winning Latvian duo played its second match against Estonia’s Rivo Vesik and Karl Jaani. It was the first match for Estonian pair and they displayed quite an energetic play. The opening set turned out to be a long gruelling battle between two sides.
After a tough competition, Latvian team claimed the set (31-29). After defeating the opponents in the first set, the Latvian had grasped their game plans. This time they did not allow Estonian counterparts to create much of trouble and closed second set
21-18, which helped them announced 2-0 match victory.
Following the footsteps of winners, the US pairing of Matt Fuerbringer (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Nick Lucena (Santa Barbara, Calif.) also captured both of its opening day matches. They defeated Benjamin Insfran and Alvaro Fulho of Brazil in the first match.
The American side dropped the opening set (19-21) but managed to dismiss the Brazilian pair in the following sets. They posted 21-15, 19-17 and claimed 2-1 victory.
Quite similarly, the second of US pair also spanned over three sets. They were challenged by Spain’s Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira in the second match. The Spanish duo dominated the US tandem in second set but overall lost the match 1-2 (9-21, 21-18, 12-15).
In the upcoming stages of the tournament, a touch competition is expected between Latvian and US pairs as both teams finished the day-1 of the tournament with 2-0 record, apiece.
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