Beach Volleyball 2023 Discussion Thread

[Josh 13,633]

2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Championships

 

Women's Bronze Medal Match

Ludwig/Lippmann  d. Mäder/Vergé-Depré  2-1 (21-14, 18-21, 15-11)

 

7 blocks from Lippmann!!

 

Women's Gold Medal Match

Hüberli/Brunner  d. Alvarez/Moreno  2-0 (21-12, 21-13)

 

Hüberli/Brunner go one better than 2022 

[CCB 628]

23 minutes ago, Josh said:

2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Championships

 

Men's Semifinals

Åhman/Hellvig  v. Nicolai/Cottafava  

Luini/de Groot  v. Popov/Reznik

 

Mol/Sørum lost to Luini/de Groot in the QFs  Unfortunately, that means we won't get to see a Sweden-Norway final  

Luini and De Groot are an occasional couple this week. It is a mess within Dutch beachvolleyball right now. Boersmans (Boermans/de Groot) has a serious injury, Van de Velde doesn't wanna play anymore with Varenhorst. So Varenhorst decided to play with Luini, but Varenhorst has a back injury. Van de Velde decided to play with Immers, but last week he played the national championships with Van der Loo, while Immers played with De Groot.

 

Every week every player has a new partner.Not really useful in view of Olympic qualification.

[Illya 590]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

Popov/Reznik

Fenomenal week for our country, first ever entrance in top-8 and top-4 at the EuCh looks promising. Sergiy and Eduard have a chance to become second team in play sports in Paris, so wish them good luck. 

[Jinzha 703]

57 minutes ago, CCB said:

Luini and De Groot are an occasional couple this week. It is a mess within Dutch beachvolleyball right now. Boersmans (Boermans/de Groot) has a serious injury, Van de Velde doesn't wanna play anymore with Varenhorst. So Varenhorst decided to play with Luini, but Varenhorst has a back injury. Van de Velde decided to play with Immers, but last week he played the national championships with Van der Loo, while Immers played with De Groot.

 

Every week every player has a new partner.Not really useful in view of Olympic qualification.

It's crazy how all these made up teams keep getting decent results in championships and the world tour as well. There is definitely a talented bunch of beach volleyball players in the Dutch men squad, but especially Boermans/de Groot and Varenhorst/Van de Velde are cursed with injuries and Luini/Immers just keep filling in various holes in the squad.

[Josh 13,633]

2 hours ago, Illya said:

Fenomenal week for our country, first ever entrance in top-8 and top-4 at the EuCh looks promising. Sergiy and Eduard have a chance to become second team in play sports in Paris, so wish them good luck. 

Wouldn't get your hopes up @Illya  

 

This has (quite easily) been one of Popov/Reznik's best finishes throughout the qualification period (Started Feb 2023), and doesn't help that they got an extremely easy path to the semifinals (Aye/Aye, Bassereau/Gauthier-Rat, Metral/Haussener, Bello/Bello. All four teams are ranked outside the 20). Luini/de Groot will humble them.

 

Yes, they have three 600+ points finishes (Including Euro CHs), and those finishes should count towards qualifying for Paris (Best 12/16 finishes count, 600 points per finish should be enough), but the way they've been playing I don't think their level of play will be enough. They'll either need to improve a bunch of aspects to their game or have significant draw luck in order to achieve those 12 solid finishes. 

[Illya 590]

19 hours ago, Josh said:

Wouldn't get your hopes up @Illya  

 

This has (quite easily) been one of Popov/Reznik's best finishes throughout the qualification period (Started Feb 2023), and doesn't help that they got an extremely easy path to the semifinals (Aye/Aye, Bassereau/Gauthier-Rat, Metral/Haussener, Bello/Bello. All four teams are ranked outside the 20). Luini/de Groot will humble them.

 

Yes, they have three 600+ points finishes (Including Euro CHs), and those finishes should count towards qualifying for Paris (Best 12/16 finishes count, 600 points per finish should be enough), but the way they've been playing I don't think their level of play will be enough. They'll either need to improve a bunch of aspects to their game or have significant draw luck in order to achieve those 12 solid finishes. 

Okay, man, but today Ukrainians beat 11th Cottafava/Nicolai, earlier McHugh/Burnett, fought hard against Felipe/Renato and Hodges/Schubert at the tie-breaks.

 

Obviously, they have a lot to improve, BUT there is a fact that they start to playing tournaments only 2 months ago when other teams start their seasons in March. Now they can qualify for first ever WCh and move in WR, with possible career high 21st next week. By the way, there is some chance that Popov/Reznik can qualify, and I can belive in that, because they trained abroad with good coaches from Germany or Brazil. Another possible strenght is height (Popov is 1.88 and Ed is 2.07), so we can imagine scenario when chemistry between this two can work - today is the example of it.

 

 

[Josh 13,633]

4 hours ago, Illya said:

Okay, man, but today Ukrainians beat 11th Cottafava/Nicolai, earlier McHugh/Burnett, fought hard against Felipe/Renato and Hodges/Schubert at the tie-breaks.

 

Obviously, they have a lot to improve, BUT there is a fact that they start to playing tournaments only 2 months ago when other teams start their seasons in March. Now they can qualify for first ever WCh and move in WR, with possible career high 21st next week. By the way, there is some chance that Popov/Reznik can qualify, and I can belive in that, because they trained abroad with good coaches from Germany or Brazil. Another possible strenght is height (Popov is 1.88 and Ed is 2.07), so we can imagine scenario when chemistry between this two can work - today is the example of it.

 

 

McHugh/Burnett's finishes mainly consist of a 2nd at Asian Champs (Only real competition being Cherif/Ahmed and Hodges/Schubert, neither of which they beat), a 1st at Commonwealth Games (Good win over Canadians Schacter/Dearing in the final, although they were favored) and two top-five finishes in Torquay (All the top teams were sitting out as they were preparing for the OQP). IMO they don't deserve to be #19 in the world rankings.

 

Popov/Reznik's win over Nicolai/Cottafava today in the bronze medal match was a great step in the right direction though. And yes, completely forgot about the three-set battles against Renato/Vitor Felipe and Hodges/Schubert. 

 

I certainly do hope they qualify, and you prove me to be wrong 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Josh

[Josh 13,633]

European Championships Vienna, Austria

 

Women’s Tournament

Gold- Tanja Hüberli/Nina Brunner 

Silver- Daniela Alvarez/Tania Moreno 

Bronze- Laura Ludwig/Louisa Lippmann  

 

Men’s Tournament

Gold- David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig  

Silver- Leon Luini/Yorick de Groot

Bronze- Sergiy Popov/Eduard Reznik 

 

Pretty surprising podium with the exception of the gold medalists. Thought the final four would've been NOR SWE NED (Brouwer/Meeuswen) GER on the men's side, and NED LAT SUI (Huberli/Brunner) ITA on the women's side. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Josh

[Josh 13,633]

 Klineman is back!! Got a WC for World Championships with Harward

[Josh 13,633]

2024 BPT Calendar: