JERUSALEM, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The Netherlands' men's and Latvia's women's national teams on Saturday qualified for the 2023 European Volleyball Confederation (CEV) Nations Cup final tournament after winning their preliminary pools in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan.
In the men's Pool B final tie, Dutch pair Steven van de Velde and Matthew Immers defeated Latvia's Edgars Tocs and Oliviers Bulgacs 2-1.
Then, former world champions and Olympic bronze medalists Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen completed the Dutch overall victory over Latvia with a 2-0 win over Martins Plavins and Mihails Samoilovs.
Earlier, in the semifinals against Israel, Van de Velde and Immers defeated Tomer Hadar and David Lanciano 2-0.
Then Brouwer and Meeuwsen, currently in the second place in the FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) world rankings, surprisingly lost to the young Israelis Eylon Elazar and Kevin Cuzmiciov 2-0 but recovered to win the golden set 15-10 against the same pair.
Also on Saturday, Latvia won the women's Pool G after beating Finland in the final, with a golden set won 15-8 by European champions Tina Graudina and Anastasija Samoilova over Niina Ahtiainen and Taru Lahti-Liukkonen.
Finland took an overall lead first after Sara Sinisalo and Aniinna Parkkinen defeated Latvia's Liva Ebere and Daniela Konstantinova 2-0, but Graudina and Samoilova pulled it even by overcoming Ahtiainen and Lahti-Liukkonen 2-0.
The final tournament, whose host country has not yet been determined, will include eight teams of each gender. ■
