01/08/2013 18:00
Cicolari hopeful European Championship is a good start to build on
2013 CEV A1 Beach Volleyball European Championship Final presented by checkrobin.com
Klagenfurt, Austria, August 1, 2013. 2011 European champion Greta Cicolari was pretty happy and satisfied with her debut alongside 21-year old Silvia Costantini though on Thursday they lost to Madelein Meppelink and Sophie van Gestel of the Netherlands in the first round of the single elimination (16-21, 22-24). “If you only think that we spent only three days together before coming to Klagenfurt, this is already a good start” Cicolari said. After all, Meppelink and van Gestel are the second-seeded pair of the tournament and one of the most consistent European teams this year, with the CEV season opener in Antalya and the FIVB Grand Slam in Corrientes, Argentina on their resume.
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The score was close halfway through the opening set before Meppelink and van Gestel accelerated the tempo of the game to bring it home at 21-16. Cicolari and Costantini fought their way back in the second where they got a margin of three points (16:13) before their Dutch opponents responded to go for a very close final rush. Meppelink/van Gestel were not able to cash their first match ball and the Italians even had a chance to call for the tie-break before the game came to a close at 24-22. “This was a good test and we can travel to Berlin for the FIVB Grand Slam knowing that this is something we can build on” adds Cicolari. “I have seen that we have grown game after game and if we had played against Russia and Germany as we did today, I think the result would have been different. Anyway, we need time and more matches to find the right chemistry but I am evidently happy with what Silvia did here in what was her first international tournament”. As for the “Oranjes”, their next opponents will be Vasiliki Arvaniti/Panagiota Karagkouni of Greece who topped the charts of preliminary pool H.
With Sanne Keizer/Marleen van Iersel and Jolien Sinnema/Michelle Stiekema enjoying a bye in the first elimination round, the Netherlands have got a great record of four – out of four – teams still in the tournament for Jantine van der Vlist and Marloes Wesselink completed the program on the centre court by beating Austria’s Magdalena Jirak and Lena Plesiutschnig 21-12, 22-20 coming back from 12:19 in the second set. This means that Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger will carry on their shoulders the hopes of the host country to go for a top finish this coming Saturday by the time the medals will be at stake.
Barbora Hermannova and Martina Bonnerova of the Czech Republic have got a special connection with the European Championship for last year they made the 1/4 finals in The Hague and once more they have exceeded all expectations by making the second stage of the single elimination after besting Maria Prokopieva and Svetlana Popova of Russia 21-19, 21-18. “I am absolutely overwhelmed because we did not expect to go this far” Hermannova says. “We are going to play Holtwick/Semmler in the next round; though they are the first-seeded pair of the Championship and have been showing they are in great shape, we just want to play our game and enjoy it”.
Out of five German teams still in the race, Jana Köhler and Anni Schumacher were the first to leave the tournament after losing in straight sets to Isabelle Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Depré (22-24, 16-21) on the centre court. The next stop for the Swiss girls will be a very interesting game with the major sensation of the Championship so far, i.e. Sweden’s Karin Ljungqvist and Nina Grawender. 2013 vice world champion Karla Borger and Elena Kiesling – who replaced Britta Büthe due to injury – also made it through the first elimination round by claiming the derby with their countrywomen Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grössner (2:1; 34-32, 17-21, 15-8). Laura Ludwig/Kira Walkenhorst had to fight for three sets before edging 2012 Olympians Lucy Boulton and Zara Dampney of England (22-24, 21-17, and 15-13) to play Sinnema/Stiekema in the next round.
The last teams to get the right to continue their European campaign were Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova (CZE) and Monika Brzostek/Kinga Kolosinska (POL) who could see off Tanja Goricanec/Tanja Hüberli (SUI) and Natalia Dubovcova/Dominika Nestarcova (SVK) to round a long day of world-class Beach Volleyball.
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