05/06/2014 19:00
Spanish girls want to complete their collection of European medals
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Cagliari, Italy, June 5, 2014. Spain’s Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo have only one medal which is still missing from their collection: gold. Last year they lost the final match of the European Championship to the Schwaiger sisters before 8,000 fans in Klagenfurt and in 2012 they settled for bronze, thereby writing history for their country that had never won any medal in the women’s competition before. Last Sunday, in a remake of the European Championship gold medal match, they lost the final of the Baden Masters to the Schwaigers, but with Doris having announced her decision to retire from competitive sport, they are now in a good position to go for that coveted gold medal. On Thursday they first lost their last match in the Pool to Russia’s Evgenia Ukolova and Maria Prokopieva, but re-started their quest for glory in the first round of the elimination phase edging past 2013 U18 European champions Daria Rudykh and Nadezhda Makroguzova (23-21, 21-18).
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“This morning we had a very tight match like we always have with these Russian girls. They served very well whereas we did not do so, and in the end they won a very close match,” Elsa Baquerizo says. “We had our highs and lows also this afternoon when we played these young girls from Russia, but in the end we are happy with the result. We kind of struggled to get into the match but it worked quite well. Of course we would like to win gold, the only medal which is still missing from our collection, but we do not set any specific goals because then we would start feeling the pressure and once you get nervous, you won’t perform your best,” she adds. “I believe that the level of the competition here is very high; there are at least 10 teams that can win a medal and right now I have the impression that Germany has got very strong pairs. Tomorrow we will play another Russian team, Moiseeva/Syrtseva, who also finished first in their Pool, so we take it step by step and hope to show our best performance. It’s going to be another tight match.”
In the first round of the elimination phase, Italy got something to celebrate as home stars Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth cruised to a straight-victory (21-9, 21-15) dominating the scene from the start to the end in their match with Poland’s Monika Brzostek and Kinga Kolosinska. “It has been a very long day, packed with emotions, and it wasn’t easy to get back on track after the defeat we suffered this morning,” Marta Menegatti said. “However, we entered this match very focused and determined, and we have to do the same tomorrow as well once we play the Nyströms in the next round. They have been playing together for a very long time, so they are a very strong and solid team, but most of all we have to focus on ourselves, knowing that if we perform our best, we stand a fair chance of winning the match.”
Daniela Gioria and Laura Giombini, on the other hand, could not stop the run of second-seeded Katrin Holtwick and Ilka Semmler. The Germans stormed back strong from their defeat in pool play earlier this morning and scored a straight-set win (21-16, 21-16) to move on to the next round and play there Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel of the Netherlands. German teams continued with their highs and lows in the tournament: if Karla Borger and Britta Büthe had no problems at all in their match up with Norway’s Janne Kongshavn and Faye Kjølberg (21-16, 21-11), Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude lost in three sets to Czech girls Martina Bonnerova and Barbora Hermannova (21-10, 11-21, 11-15). The winners of last week’s FIVB Anapa Open in Russia, Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grossner, made sure four teams from Germany are still in the race for gold after their hard-fought victory (19-21, 21-14, 15-12) over Rimke Braakman and Jantine van der Vlist of the Netherlands.
Menegatti and Orsi Toth are Italy’s only team still in the competition: Giulia Momoli and Lucia Bacchi were also eliminated on Thursday after two close sets (20-22, 19-21) with Switzerland’s Tanja Goricanec and Tanja Hüberli.
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