Spain and Slovakia advance to semi-finals of Zonal Phase Continental Cup – Women: Volleyball
The Zonal Phase Tournament of the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup is underway in Tenerife, Spain from September 30 to October 2. Six countries with two teams per gender are taking part in the competition. In the women’s section, Germany, Italy, Czech
Republic, Norway, Slovakia, hosts Spain are on board to contest their games skills. The opening day of the Zonal Phase Tournament featured the quarter-final matches from Pool B on Friday. Spain, who is also the host, and Slovakian tandems stole the show and
reserved their slots in the semi-finals.
Spain vs. Norway
The home team played three matches on Day 1 of the tournament and built a record of 3-0. The Spanish side was first challenged by visiting country Norway. Spain’s national champions, Liliana/Baquerizo, recorded a wonderful straight set win over Sannarnes/Hjortland.
The Spaniards took full advantage of the familiar conditions and brought out their best performance on the court. The Norwegian side was unable to keep up with the national champions from Spain and gave up after receiving a 0-2 (14-21, 11-21) beating.
In the next fixture, Caballero/Hopf battled against Janne Kongshavn and Rita Eritsland. Caballero/Hopf had to earn the victory because their opponents played with a lot of tenacity and spirit. The match was closely contested and there were moments when the
guest team had better chances of winning. However, the local tandem finished off the game with by 2-0 (24-22, 21-19).
Liliana and Baquerizo returned to action in the third match and posted another 2-0 (21-13, 21-11) win over Kongshavn/ Eritsland. Baquerizo perfectly complimented her partner and built great momentum in the game. The Norwegians had already lost one match
to the other Spanish team and failed to perform again.
Two more games were scheduled to be played but they resulted in forfeits. Hence, Spain qualified for the semi-finals against Austria on Saturday.
Slovakia vs. Czech Republic
Slovakia held off the Czech Republic for an overall record of 3-1 in the quarter-finals. Recovering from the early loss of the first match, Czechs performed amazingly well and edged out their opponents.
In the day-opener, Hana Klapalova and Barbora Hermannova of Czech Republic, played weel against the Slovak pair of Michalovicova/Cizmarova and beat them quickly. Czech ladies swept the feet of their rivals and were successful in posting a 2-0 (21-8, 21-14)
win.
In the next match-up, Natalia Dubovcova and Dominika Nestarcova drew level for Slovakia with an outstanding performance. They defeated Eliska Galova and Karolina Rehackova (21-16, 19-21, 15-10) and put Slovakia on the winning track. The winning duo carried
the same momentum into the next match and worked out a 2-1 (22-24, 22-20, 15-9) victory over Klapalova/Hermannova.
In the last match of the day, Lucias Michalovicova and Cizmarova posted 2-0 (21-16, 24-22) win over Galova/Rehackova and enabled Spain to get into the semi-finals.
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