Nummerdor and Schuil qualify for the semi-final at Morocco Open - Beach Volleyball
The $190,000 SWATCH FIVB Morocco Open Beach Volleyball tournament is currently underway in Aqadir, Morocco and the tournament started its Main-Draw stage and the top-8 teams fought for the semi-final spots. The Dutch pairing of Reinder Nummerdor and Richard
Schuil performed amazingly well at the third round of the tournament and paved their way to the semi-final stage.
Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil were challenged by Casey Jennings and Kevin Wong of United States in the quarter-final match on Friday, October 4. The game spanned over three tiring sets, where the Dutch tandem proved to be better and finished off with
2-1 (21-18, 17-21, 15-10) victory.
Dutch jumped to a perfect start in the match and produced convincing serves. With the help of serve aces in the early few minutes, they managed to earn a better position in the match. The American pair tried to stay stable but could not stop constant scoring
from Netherlands. First set ended in Nummerdor/Schuil’s favour as they put away 21-18 on board.
Jennings and Wong changed their game strategy in the next set and came up with a heavy strike of volleys. With a better combination of attack and defence tactics, they won the second set and levelled the game score at 1-1.
The decisive third set of the match put both sides to in a real test of their capabilities. The Dutch displayed a great effort and pushed the Americans behind, 15-10. They pulled off success in the match at the loss of one set (2-1).
Schuil was delighted with their performance against the tough Americans. He stated his thoughts after the match in the following manner: “I had difficulty receiving their serves. I think they had at least three aces on me. Tomorrow is going to be difficult
again. Fuerbringer is a very good blocker.”
Previously, the Dutch Nummerdor and Schuil have collected six gold, four silver and two bronze medals on the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World Tour. They are a very experienced pair and have the capacity to put up against any of the best team in the world. They are set
to face American Fuerbringer and Lucena in the semi-final match. On the other hand, after dropping the quarter-final to their Dutch competitors, Jennings and Wong will compete in the losing round. They will cross paths with the Brazilian team of Pedro and
Ferramenta.
The semi-finals will be played on Saturday. Two successful teams of the fourth round of the tournament will get the chance to compete for gold at the final showdown of the tournament, while the losers of the semi-finals will vie for bronze in the third position
match. The medal matches and other classification matches will be played on Sunday, October 9. The Morocco Open will also put an end to the men’s competitions at the 2011 SWATCH FIVB World tour, whereas the women have one more tournament left in November in
Phuket, Thailand.
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