Mol leads all statistical categories in Vienna

If a Most Valuable Player award was to be given at last week’s A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley Vienna 2021 presented by Swatch, there’s little doubt about who should take it in the men’s tournament – Anders Mol.

The blocking half of the Beach Volley Vikings team that secured its fourth-straight victory gold medal in the tournament, an unprecedented achievement for men and women, topped all scoring statistical categories in the event, playing a pivotal role in another Norwegian triumph at the EuroBeachVolley.

Targeted by virtually every serve that went his and Christian Sørum’s court, the 24-year-old Mol showed the game that made of him the World Tour’s Most Outstanding Player in the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

 

 

 

 

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The Norwegian star was the top scorer of the tournament with 183 points registered, nearly 50 more than second-placed and silver medalist Stefan Boermans of the Netherlands, who registered 139. Polish Piotr Kantor, who won bronze in Vienna, ranked third with 135.

Czech blocker David Schweiner averaged 10.6 points scored per set to rank fourth at 106, ahead of Dutch 21-year-old defender and Boermans’ partner Yorick de Groot, who had 104.

Mol’s offense was on point all weekend as he earned 125 of his points in kills, more than any other player in the event. Kantor ranked second in that category with 118 and had a higher average than the Norwegian (7.87 to 7.81 per set). Partners Boermans and De Groot were third and fourth with 99 and 95 kills while young German defender Lukas Pfretzchner ended fifth, with 91.

As expected, a fair amount of Mol’s points, including the one that ended the tournament, came from his specialty, blocking, a skill that earned the Vikings as many as 41 points. Boermans was the next in line with 31, followed by German Nils Ehlers with 27. Eliminated by the Norwegians in the Round of 16, Italian Olympic medalist Paolo Nicolai had 25 and nearly reached Mol’s incredible average (2.56 to 2.5 per set). Dutchman Robert Meeuwsen, who finished fourth in the event, closed the top five with 25 blocks as well.

Mol’s production from the service line, an area of his game he’s been working in the last two years, was probably the most surprising one. The Norwegian fired a tournament-high 17 aces. Polish bronze medalist Bartosz Losiak had 14 while Dutch Steven van de Velde and Spanish Adrian Gavira earned 13 points from the service line each. German Alexander Walkenhorst was fifth in aces with 11 but had the highest success ratio in the entire tournament, converting nearly 18% of his serving attempts into points.

Click here to see all the stats!

Congrats, Anders, and all other players who had fantastic performances in Vienna!