12/07/2015 00:34
Germany’s Mersmann/Schneider celebrate second international title at Vaduz Satellite, Latvians surprise with silver
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball Satellite - Vaduz
Vaduz, Liechtenstein, July 11, 2015. Germany’s Teresa Mersmann and Isabel Schneider celebrated on Saturday night their second international title this summer as they topped the final standing of the CEV Satellite in Vaduz after some weeks ago they had claimed gold also at the Satellite tournament held in Molodechno, Belarus. The Germans had to fight for three sets before edging past Latvia’s Inese Jursone and Tina Graudina (18-21, 21-18, 15-11) in a remake of the match these teams had played in Round 3 of the Main Draw and that Mersmann/Schneider had won in two fairly easy sets. Austria’s Lena Plesiutschnig and Katharina Schützenhöfer added another medal to their resume as they settled for the bronze after finishing second at the Baku 2015 European Games some weeks ago.
A full stadium with 1,000 fans in attendance followed the bronze and gold medal matches on Saturday night.
Latvian tandem upset Baku 2015 European Games silver medallists in semis
The women’s competition had resumed on Saturday with the semis where Plesiutschnig and Schützenhöfer were hoping to extend their winning streak. However, the only 17-year old Tina Graudina delivered a superb performance, especially in the first set, where she sided-out with impressive consistency and though she had a drop of efficiency in the second stanza, her efforts combined with those of 2009 European champion Inese Jursone were enough to propel the Latvian duo to a rather surprising 21-18, 16-21, 15-8 win.
In the second semi-final Mersmann/Schneider delivered another demonstration of consistency and class to stamp a 21-17, 21-18 win over France’s Laura Longuet/Alexandra Jupiter, who had moved to Vaduz after failing to make the Main Draw of the FIVB Major Series in Gstaad earlier this week.
Austrians secure bronze medal to add to European Games silver
Longuet and Jupiter could not quite cope with the task they were given in the bronze medal match and quickly lost the first set to Plesiutschnig and Schützenhöfer (15-21). However, they bounced back in the second where they played at eye level with their opponents and were able to stretch the match to a tie-break (21-19). The Austrians responded by leading by a couple of points early on in the decider and after a time-out asked by the French ladies as they trailed 9:12, the game resumed with Schützenhöfer putting a lot of pressure on her opponents with her service, this way paving the way for her and partner Plesiutschnig’s success (15-10). “We are very happy with this third place and our game plan worked just fine with the only exception being a blackout we had in the second set,” Schützenhöfer said. “At the end we put a lot of pressure on them with our service and this way we took the match home.”
Germans stop amazing run of Latvian teenager and 2009 European champion
Though she is still very inexperienced, 17-year old Tina Graudina did a superb job also in the final match with Mersmann/Schneider. She was put under pressure but she responded well and with her attacks the Latvian tandem claimed a two-point lead in the first set. Graudina and Schneider engaged in a balanced duel and in the end the Latvians had the upper hand (21-18).
A three-point early lead in the second set was not enough for the Germans to make things easy in the second set as Graudina and Jursone responded by drawing level at 9 all. However, Mersmann and Schneider changed gear once again and after cruising to a 17:13 lead they closed the second set at 21-18.
Everything was to be decided at the tie-break where the Latvians rushed to a 5:3 lead as they served on Mersmann. However, the Germans flipped the charts around at 9:8 and at this stage Jursone and Graudina asked for a time-out. It did not produce the desired effects as the youngest player in the tournament seemed to feel the pressure and could not prevent her opponents from pocketing their second CEV Satellite tournament of the 2015 season.
Graudina, a bronze medallist from last year’s FIVB U17 World Championships in Acapulco, could nevertheless be proud of what she did in Vaduz this week: “The tournament was a big surprise for us. We came as a reserve team and eventually advanced to the finals. This was a great experience.”
The German team paid their respect to the Latvian rising star: “She did her job well, especially in the first set where she played incredibly well. We had to fight hard and had to adjust our block-defence tactics due to her strong performance. We are glad that we were able to turn the game around and are happy that we can take the gold medal with us to Germany.”
Teams from Germany and Belgium secure semi-final spots in men’s competition
Germany’s Tim Holler and Jonas Schröder made the semis of the men’s tournament on Saturday after edging Italy’s Enrico Rossi and Marco Caminati. The other tandem that made the semis is Belgium’s Dries Koekelkoren/Tom Van Walle. On Sunday the men’s competition will resume with two matches where another two spots for the semis will be at stake. After claiming an emotional derby with Bennet and David Poniewaz, the silver medallists from the 2014 edition of the Vaduz Satellite, first-seeded Thomas Kaczmarek and Sebastian Fuchs of Germany will be playing Rossi and Caminati. In the other match Austria’s Peter Eglseer and Daniel Müllner will take on U23 world champions Maciej Kosiak and Maciej Rudol who on Saturday eliminated from the competition the winners of the 2014 Vaduz Satellite, Austrians Tobias Winter and Lorenz Petutschnig.
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