Ohio State outside places fourth at beach volleyball U20 European Championship

Photo courtesy of the CEV

A podium finish at an international beach volleyball event barely eluded Ohio State outside attacker Sotiris Siapanis.

Siapanis representing his home nation of Cyprus finished in fourth place at the CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship that concluded Sunday in Brno, Czech Republic.

Siapanis and his teammate Odysseas Savvides lost to the Italian duo of Gianluca Dal Corso and Marco Viscovich 21-19, 21-14 in the bronze-medal match on Sunday. The Cyprus pair was eliminated from gold medal contention earlier in the day following a semifinals loss to Swedish pair of Jonatan Hellvig and David Ahman.

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Siapanis and Savvides reached the semifinals after winning their first three matches in the knock-out stage of the tournament. In addition, the team went undefeated in pool-play and won the Pool G title to qualify for the knock-out stage.

This was the second international tournament for Siapanis in recent weeks.

The freshman playing for the Cyprus Men’s National Team was among the offensive leaders at the EuroVolley qualification tournament.

Siapanis was fourth at the tournament with 73 kills and had double-digit kills in four matches. He also was in the tournament’s top 10 with a 43.45 percent offensive efficiency and a .280 attack percentage.

Siapanis will now join the Buckeyes for the 2021 season. Ohio State ended the shortened 2020 season at 11-8 and opened the season on a six-match winning steak.