Porto, Portugal, July 13, 2013 – Germany’s Moritz Reichert and Clemens Wickler and USA’s Torey DeFalco and Lucas Yoder marched straight into the final four on Saturday at their first ever FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships.
Both teams topped their pool on Friday. The Americans continued with straight wins after that, Germany lost one set to home team Tomas and Diogo in the second elimination round.
In the semifinal on Sunday they will play each other for a chance to win their first gold medal ever.
Norway face Lithuania
Norway’s Bjarne Nikolai Huus and Christian Sandlie Sorum face Lithuania’s Lukas Kazdailis and Arnas Rumsevicius in the other semifinal.
The Lithuanians advanced as lucky losers from the qualifications, but booked three 2-0 wins on Saturday over Nicaragua’s Contreras and Mora, Switzerland’s Zandbergen and Metral and Poland’s Lysikowski and Wierzbicki.
While Kazdailis entered his first U19 World Championships, Rumsevicius is the more experienced player with a fifth place at the U19 last year. They hope to repeat the 2004 Lithuanian success, when Arunas Kirsnys and Arvydas Miseikis won the gold.
Friday’s poolwinners Huus and Sorum had a tough quarterfinal after a 2-0 win over Austria’s Moser and Aberger. In their second match of the day they were up against another Austrian team Paul Buchegger and Philipp Waller.
The match was decided in a thrilling tiebreak, in which Austria reached their first match point at 14-12. The Norwegians came back to 14-14, but had to face two more Austrian match points before they could finish the game at their first (21-16 13-21 18-16).
“We had a bad start in all the sets, but we knew that at the end we would came back”, Huus said. “Many times I thought we would lose this game. I am glad Christian helped me, because I was so exhausted.”
They look back on a successful run at their second U19 World Championships. Last year they finished 5th in Larnaka. “We feel good. This is a good tournament. We really got the feeling we are in a World Championship and not in some Norwegian Championship. And when you win it’s all good.”
The Norwegian boys played one final four before, last year at the CEV U18, finishing 4th. “So we have to get to the final this time”, Huus said.
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