02/09/2015 13:38
Germany’s U18 European champion opens Cyprus campaign with speedy win
2015 CEV U20 Beach Volleyball European Championship
Larnaka, Cyprus, September 2, 2015. Early success for last year’s U18 European champion, Leonie Klinke (pictured). Playing with the other Leonie, Welsch, on centre court, Germany’s ‘starlet’ claimed her first match in the competition in Pool E against the Belgians Leen van Grinsven and Lotte Vandendriessche 2-0 (21-12, 21-13).
“It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, we made it look easy as we were really focussed from the start,” said Leonie Klinke, adding: “It was a common effort throughout the match, but a lot of credit must be given to my partner Leonie, who carried us through in some parts of the second set (especially with her serve) in which our opponents played much better.”
The modest Leonie Welsch said: “We knew that any lapse of concentration would cost us dearly, so from the start we had to focus and not allow the other team to go into the lead. As Leonie said, this was not an easy match and the team from Belgium proved worthy opponents. But we both knew that if we had played to the best of our abilities, we would have had no problem winning this match.”
In a much closer game, the Greek women’s team of Dimitra Manavi and Ioanna Parisaki recorded their first win in the tournament, beating the Slovenian pair of Helena Mijoc and Kaja Dolenc, in a Pool D game, 2-1 (14-21, 21-13, 15-11).
Despite coming from a similar weather climate, the Greek pair had difficulties in the first set to adjust to the 35 degree morning heat of Larnaka. “It’s also hot in Athens and Thessaloniki, but it’s so humid over here. We started much better the second set, and we knew that it was only a matter of time before we finally went into the lead. Having done that we had no problem winning the set,” said Manavi.
“Winning the second set helped us a lot psychologically. You don’t change your tactics when you’re winning, so we continued playing the same way in the deciding set. Now, we have to get our adrenaline back for the next match, which is not going to be easy either,” partner Parisaki added.
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