Youngsters from Latvia and Lithuania steal the show at EEVZA U16 Championships

The second day of the 2021 EEVZA U16 Beach Volleyball Championships was full of long, tight games, including a number of tiebreakers, as teams from Latvia and Lithuania stole the show in the boys’ and girls’ competition, respectively.

Lithuania’s Elena Kuodaitytė/Liepa Urbonaitė started their journey in the double elimination knockout phase with a win against another Lithuanian team – Sandra Vasiliauskaitė/Neriija Mašailaitė – by 2-0 (21-13, 21-11). In the second round, they beat Estonian sisters Anni Põldma/Liisa Põldma and secured their spot in the semi-finals after edging Latvia’s Beate Bonija Runce/Liva Ebere later in the afternoon.

Runce and Ebere started the elimination phase by defeating their compatriots Agnese Grinberga/Enija Rumaka. Later on, in a match where a spot in the semis was at stake, they edged another Latvian team in Marta Beatrise Gintere/Renate Kruklike to play Lithuania’s Morta Gailiute and Aiste Bardauskaite for a spot in the gold medal match.

It was an upsetting day for the Põldma sisters from Estonia. Although they managed to recover after losing their first game against a home team and they beat teammates Lisandra Tatrik/Mirjam Karoliine Kask before winning a dramatic match against Grinberga/Rumaka by 2-1, they had to leave the competition after losing to another Latvian team, Eva Elizabete Brokane/Jelizaveta Izotova, 16-21, 16-21.

In the boys’ competition, Latvia’s Matiss Salkovskis/Karlis Jaundžeikars and Oskars Kilks/Markuss Matulevičs showed their supremacy, as they did not lose a single match to advance straight to the semis.

However, it was not such an easy task for Kilks/Matulevičs, as they emerged victorious from a closely fought match with Estonia’s Ralf Aros/Ranel Rahuoja, which drew much attention also from the spectators. The Latvians started strong, taking the first set 21-19; however, they let their guard down a little bit in the second set, thus leaving the door open for a tiebreak. They regrouped in the third set and by making fewer mistakes than they had made in the previous set, they eventually edged their Estonian rivals. This victory provided an impulse and the energy needed to move on to the semis, where they will be playing the same Estonian team for a highly anticipated re-match.  

As for Salkovkis/Jaundžeikars, they did not find any real opposition throughout the elimination round and they will be playing another Latvian tandem, Patriks Orups and Ralfs Andrejevs, in the semis.

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