Local heroes Samoilovs/Smedins advance to semifinals
After two tough wins against strong Polish teams, Latvian beach volleyball team Samoilovs/Smedins has advanced to the semifinals of the 2017 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final and will play for the medals this weekend.
Samoilovs digging at the EuroBeachVolley Final
After beating top seeds Kantor/Losiak (Poland) in the round of 16 by 2:1 (21:19, 19:21, 15:10), they were facing another strong Polish team in the quarterfinals. Fijalek/Bryl turned out to be not as strong as expected. Only in the second set the Latvians needed to push harder. After 36 minutes they finally won 2:0 (21:14, 21:17) and moved to the seminfinals where they are going to play the Belgian team Koekelkoren/van Walle on Saturday afternoon.
Samoilovs explained the pressure the local crowd puts on him and Smedins:
“We are playing at home and everybody is expecting from us a victory in every game we contest…We remained concentrated and were prepared to dig all balls we could and keep them in play.”
The tournament will close on Sunday with the gold and bronze medal matches. Find more information on latest results here.
