Nanjing, China, July 14, 2018 – The Netherlands’ Raisa Schoon/Emi van Driel and Russia’s Mariia Bocharova/Maria Voronina will meet in the women’s final of the FIVB Beach Volleyball U19 World Championships, following their victories on Saturday.
In the first semifinal match, Schoon/van Driel nicked points on well-placed spikes and hustled in every play against USA’s Devon Newberry/Lindsey Sparks to salvage more points in their brilliant 21-13 opening set win.
The USA pair led briefly at the start of the second set, but the Dutch duo responded quickly to snatch the lead back. Schoon and van Driel made a number of smart plays, finding the opposing side’s open spots. Schoon succeeded in her drop shot that concluded the match at 21-16.
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The second semifinal match between Bocharova/Voronina and Spain’s Daniela Alvarez/Tania Moreno went to a tiebreaker.
Both sides played on an equal level at the start of the match, but the Russians managed to get some breather midway through the set when the Spaniards started to make some turnovers. Voronina stepped up on her game to totally dismantle their rivals’ defence and win the set at 21-16.
The Spanish duo trailed the Russians in the second set, but patiently executed their plays until they found the opportunity to strike. They finally got the break after Russia committed two consecutive errors that brought the set to a deadlock and eventually a 21-18 win to extend the match.
Voronina took charge of the offence to put her team on top 6-3 in the third set, the Spaniards could not recover from the onslaught and committed two errors that gave away set and match to the Russians 15-8.