Former U21 world champs push through to first Challenge-level semifinal

2023 U21 world champions Joppe Van Langendonck & Kyan Vercauteren of Belgium achieved a hard-earned place in Challenge-level semifinals for the first time on their Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour journey. They joined Jacob Brinck & Nicolai Hovmann of Denmark, Jakub Sepka & Matyas Dzavoronok of Czechia and Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel into the men’s last four lineup at the Bhubaneswar Challenge in India. Actually, for all of these players, it will be the first time competing in the semifinals at such a high level.

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All four semifinalists had to put together two wins on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s medal matches, but only the seventh-seeded Belgians had to survive a tie-breaker scare in one of their matches. Van Langendonck & Vercauteren started their day with a 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-13) eighthfinal victory over 13^th-seeded Oliver Merritt & Jed Walker, snatching the deciding set by the narrowest of margins. 21-year-old Vercauteren led the way with a match-high 23 points, including two kill blocks, while 23-year-old Van Langendonck added 21. The Belgians went on to win their quarterfinal game in a way more convincing manner, with a solid 2-0 (21-16, 21-13) upset of second-seeded Evan Cory & Derek Bradford of the United States. This time, Vercauteren put up four stuffs and scored one ace towards a match-high 19 points. His teammate signed off with two serving aces within a 15-point total.

In Sunday’s second semifinal, Van Langendonck & Vercauteren will take on Denmark’s Jacob Brinck & Nicolai Hovmann at 09:00 local time (03:30 UTC).

The 19^th-seeded Danes became the lowest ranked team to make the semifinals. They mastered a 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) sweep of their eighthfinal against 16^th-seeded Ukrainians Dmytro Kozii & Oleksii Bublyk. 27-year-old Brinck shared the top scorer honors with Bublyk on 14 points each, while 31-year-old Hovmann impressed with five kill blocks and finished with 13 points. In the quarterfinals, Brinck & Hovmann hammered out another shutout, knocking out sixth-seeded Czechs Tomas Semerad & Adam Stocek by 2-0 (21-13, 21-17). With five stuffs and three aces under his belt, Hovmann led the team with a total of 17 points. Brinck added another 14, while Semerad emerged as the best scorer of the game with 18 points.

Bracket leaders Jakub Sepka & Matyas Dzavoronok continued their impeccable campaign without a set dropped in Bhubaneswar. The top-seeded 24-year-old Czechs produced a 2-0 (21-19, 21-14) sweep of their eighthfinal match with 11^th-seeded Canadians Luke de Greeff & Tynan Gannett with a match-high 21 points from Dzavoronok, who shined with six kill blocks and two aces, supported by Sepka with another 12 putaways. In the quarterfinals, Sepka & Dzavoronok delivered a 2-0 (21-13, 21-18) shutout of ninth-seeded Arnas Rumsevicius & Karolis Palubinskas of Lithuania. Dzavoronok contributed three aces and three stuffs to finish with a match-high 18 points. Sepka registered another 16.

Sepka & Dzavoronok will open Sunday’s competition day in India at 08:00 (02:30) with the first semifinal match facing Israelis Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov, the only semifinalists who did not win their pool and had to take the detour route to the last four.

In Saturday’s eighthfinals, third-seeded Elazar & Cuzmiciov took out fourth-seeded Englishmen Frederick Bialokoz & Issa Batrane in straight sets, 2-0 (21-12, 21-14), with a solid seven kill blocks towards a 19-point match high from 25-year-old Elazar. His 22-year-old partner chipped in with 10 points. In one of the sets of their quarterfinals, the Israelis were pushed to overtime, but still managed to shut out fifth-seeded Norwegians Nils Gunnar Ringoen & Even Stray Aas in two, 2-0 (21-13, 23-21). Elazar was on fire again and topped the match chart with 25 points, including five blocks and an ace. Cuzmiciov added seven points towards the victory.

The men’s bronze medal match on Sunday is scheduled at 12:00 (06:30), while the gold medal showdown is set to serve off at 17:00 (11:30).

Beach Pro Tour Bhubaneswar Challenge: schedule and results

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