06/06/2014 22:00
Ludwig to vie for seventh European medal, van Iersel wants second crown
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Cagliari, Italy, June 6, 2014. Two former European champions, Laura Ludwig (pictured) and Marleen van Iersel, are still in contention for more glory following the last couple of quarterfinal matches played on Friday late afternoon at Poetto beach. Ludwig and her partner Kira Walkenhorst showed a very solid performance to rout their compatriots Karla Borger and Britta Büthe (21-19, 21-16) and get the right to play Switzerland’s sensation Tanja Goricanec/Tanja Hüberli in the semis on Saturday. Marleen van Iersel, on the other hand, and Madelein Meppelink upset the home fans by seeing off Italy’s top team Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth after three close sets (21-19, 21-23, 15-10). Ludwig is a two-time European champion with former partner Sara Goller (in 2008 and 2010) and on Saturday may claim her seventh European Championship medal. As for van Iersel, after winning gold at home in The Hague two years ago with Sanne Keizer, she has now her sight set on another accolade to be added to her resume.
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Italy’s home heroines Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth could not make the semis though spearheaded by the noisy and passionate crowd that got together on Friday night at Poetto beach, only some miles away from downtown Cagliari. The breeze had calmed down for the last couple of 1/4 final matches scheduled for Friday but Menegatti and Orsi Toth caught a slow start in their match with Madelein Meppelink and 2012 European champion Marleen van Iersel. After losing the first set 21-19, Menegatti and Orsi Toth got back on track in the second where they claimed an early lead (6:4) and held on to it until the score was levelled at 16 all. The home girls missed out on a couple of set balls but they did not lose composure cashing the opportunity to play a tie-break (23-21). Though the fans expected their heroines would continue to play the same way, the “Azzurre” were able to stay in the race only up to 3 all; after that, the “Oranjes” exploited some excellent serving by Marleen van Iersel to record a 7-1 run to make it 10:4. The game was almost gone but the Italians did not want to disappoint their fans and put on a strenuous fight to narrow their deficit down to three points (10:13). That was nevertheless all they could achieve with their late comeback since the “orange girls” scored the next couple of rallies to seal the 15-10 that propels them into the semi-final scheduled for Saturday morning versus Germany’s Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grossner. “We are a little bit disappointed because we thought that we could win this match and that a spot in the semis was really within our reach,” Menegatti and Orsi Toth commented.
“This is really important for us after all our hard work, but we are not finished yet. A fourth place is not good enough for us, we want to continue the same way; we felt some pressure, and that happened especially at the end of the second set where we missed out on a chance to finish it off; however, we regrouped for the tie-break, we spoke to each other and we agreed that we would win this one, which is what we eventually did,” Marleen van Iersel said.
The last match of the day was an all-German affair where Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst wanted to re-assert their home leadership. Last year’s bronze medallists looked very focused and determined right from the start of their quarterfinal match with Karla Borger and Britta Büthe and eventually cashed the first set by 21-19. They continued to perform strong also in the second going up by 3:0 and stretched their lead to 11:5 on good serving by Ludwig. Ludwig and Walkenhorst only had a very short setback halfway through the second set where they asked for a time-out by the time their lead had gone down to only three points (16:13). Once the actions resumed, they accelerated their tempo and finished it off at 21-16 with an ace by Ludwig.
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