Austria dominate Nations Cup Pool E
News
Austria confirmed the condition of the top-seeded team in this week’s 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup Pool E and dominated the Preliminary Phase tournament held in Madrid, winning the pool in a strong fashion.
With an undefeated campaign of six wins, the Austrian team overcame competition from hosts Spain, Lithuania, Croatia and Slovenia to finish first and claim the second spot in the 2023 CEV Nations Cup Finals. The Austrians will join the champions of Pool F, Switzerland, the five other pool winners and the host country in the event that’s going to be held later this year.
Represented by the duos of Robin Seidl/Moritz Pristauz and Julian Hörl/Philipp Waller, the Austrian team secured three victories between Monday and Tuesday at the Puerta de Hierro Beach Volleyball centre, beating Slovenia, Spain and Lithuania in two matches, without the need for a golden set.
The Austrians, who dropped sets in the first two encounters, saved their best game for the finals, against the Lithuanians, with Hörl and Waller topping Arnas Rumsevicius and Artur Vasiljev in straight sets (21-19, 21-16) and Seidl and Pristauz taking Audrius Knasas and Patrikas Stankevicius down also in two sets (21-17, 21-18).
Both Austrian teams have limited experience as partners as while Seidl and Pristauz only became teammates about two months ago, Hörl and Waller joined forces for this event because their regular partners, Alexander Horst and Martin Ermacora respectively, couldn’t compete this week.
Moritz Pristauz“We are really happy to have advanced to the Finals. I think we can be really proud of the team effort we showed here because we played some good volleyball. We’re really proud of our performance and very happy with this result.”
Austrian Beach Volleyball Player
Five other Nations Cup Preliminary Phase events will be held over the next five weeks with the next of them set to take place in Heraklion, Greece, from May 25-27, and reunite Denmark, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy and Ukraine in Pool C.
Created in 2022, the Nations Cup brings added weight in 2023 and 2024, serving as the European pathway in the qualification system for the beach volleyball tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympics – the countries that win the 2024 Finals among the men and the women will each earn a spot in the Games.
The Nations Cup has a different competition format, promoting ‘country vs. country’ battles. Each nation is represented by two teams and the duels take place in a best-of-three format, with the decider, if needed, being a 15-point golden set.
#BeachVolleyball
