The playoffs for men’s beach volleyball in the European University Games 2016 were held today at Lake Juran. With the sun shining through the clouds, and temperatures more pleasant than the heat of yesterday, the top twelve pairs played throughout the afternoon, as crowds of lakeside visitors watched on.
To begin with the University of Lodz’s second team won 2:0 (21:18, 22:20) against the VU University of Amsterdam, but, later in the evening, when they faced the University of Linz they lost 0:2 (23:21, 16:21).
The first pair from Lodz won 2:0 (21:12, 21:11) against Oslo, but again lost their later game against the University of Mainz, 1:2 (20:22, 21:15, 14:16) .
The later match drew in a considerable amount of spectators for both side, but the German supporters proved to be the more exuberant. Following their 16:14 win in the third set, securing their overall victory, the Mainz players sang with the celebrating crowd and ran around the second court high fiving them. “When they cheer you get more power, which is exactly what we needed, especially when the game was so close.” said one player, Paul Becker.
He added that his partner, Manuel Lohmann, was playing with a recovering knee injury, ‘It’s incredible how he played. It was our best game of the tournament.’
The University of Wroclaw won against the University of Montpellier 2:1 (15:21, 21:12, 17:15) early in the afternoon, and then won again against the Polytechnic Institute of Porto 2:0 (21:15, 25:23). While they achieved a comfortable win in the first set, the second proved tougher, with Wroclaw steadily winning points but the opposition closely behind them. After the set had finally been won, one player promptly threw himself down to lie in the sand, out of breath and basking in the sunlight and victory. Meanwhile, his partner, Paweł Lewandowski, commented, ‘I think we played a really nice game. Our aim is to play hard and we achieved that. We’re very tired but I think we’ll be okay in the tournament.’
The university of Warsaw began the day with a 2:0 (21:16, 21:18) win against the University of Zagreb, but lost 0:2 (17:21, 14:21) when they played against the University of Vilnius in the evening.
Tomorrow the University of Linz will meet the University of Mainz on court three at 12:20, and Wroclaw University will play against Vilnius University of 13:10.
Results for 13-20th places, and othering upcoming matches can be found on the results page.
Results
