DEN HAAG, Netherlands — After being selected train with the Greece national beach volleyball team in 2020 and having the COVID-19 pandemic wipe that away, Elena Baka is getting her chance to shine. Baka is in the Netherlands, at the historic Scheveningen Beach Stadium, where she is helping Greece try to lock down a spot in the Tokyo Olympics, which take place next month. Baka and her Greece teammates have advanced to the semifinals of the CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup, which will take place on Friday.
 
The CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup got underway on Wednesday, with Greece matched up against Lithuania in the round of sixteen. Greece took care of business no problem, winning both of their matches, including Baka's match with her partner, Maria Klepkou. It went three sets in the Baka/Klepkou match, but the pair from Greece won with finals of 21-19, 16-21, and 15-10. This earned them in spot in the quarterfinals against one of the favorites of the cup, Poland.
 
Taking place at 12:30 am PT on Thursday morning, Baka and Klepkou were not able to get past Kinga Wojtasik and Katarzyna Kociolek, the 29^th-ranked pair in the world, with finals of 21-11 and 21-12. While the finals were lopsided, the matches were closer than the score indicates. Four-straight points, including a pair of Baka blocks, tied the first set up 6-6 early before Poland ran away with the first set. In set two, Poland held a narrow 7-6 advantage before an 8-0 run widened the gap and put them in control.
 
Despite Baka and Klepkou losing, the top pair and golden match went to Greece, giving them the two wins necessary to move on to the semifinals on Friday where will take on Russia for a spot in the finals. Russia has wins against Cyprus and Ukraine to advance this far in the tournament. The other semifinal match will feature Norway and either the Netherlands or Spain. Baka and Klepkou will begin batting with Russia at 12:30 am PT on Friday, or 9:30 am local time in the Netherlands. A win would advance them to the finals on Saturday at 3:00 am PT, or 12:00 pm local time. Should Greece qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, Baka would not be participating, as she is not on the top pair for Greece.
 
Live streaming for the semifinal match against Russia can be found at the European Volleyball YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/CEVolleyball
 
After being named to the honorable mention list during indoor season, Baka scored First Team honors on the All-WCC team for beach season. She spent time paired up with Chandler Cowell and eventually took over the top-spot in the Gaels lineup. Baka was featured anywhere from the top pair down to the fourth pair, with a season-best nine of her matches coming as the Gaels top pair. Overall Baka went 11-8 with Cowell, snagging the third-most wins amongst any Gaels pair, and her four wins in the first and second pair were the second-most on the Gaels. On the season, Baka won matches against top-ranked opponents such as #12 Stanford and #11 Pepperdine.