02/06/2016 22:18
Laboureur/Sude claim remake of 2014 Biel / Bienne Masters final to disrupt Swiss party
2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Biel / Bienne, Switzerland, June 2, 2016. On a chilly Thursday night, Chantal Laboureur (pictured) and Julia Sude of Germany showed nerves of steel to come from behind and complete a clean sweep of their pool play matches. They did so before a partisan Swiss crowd that never stopped rooting for Isabelle Forrer/Anouk Vergé-Dépré, one of two teams expected to carry Switzerland’s dreams of glory at the 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Biel / Bienne. Laboureur and Sude rose to the occasion and claimed a 21-23, 21-18, 15-13 win to finish first in Pool E.
The 2016 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final is being extensively covered on the CEV website (click here) as well as on all CEV social media pages; a comprehensive live gallery of the competition is available here while additional information can be found on the organisers’ website www.beacheuro2016.ch.
Two years ago, when Biel / Bienne played host to the first of two consecutive Masters in the lead-up to this year’s European Championship, Laboureur/Sude stood on top of the podium after claiming the gold medal match with… Forrer/Vergé-Dépré. This time around their mission was a lot more difficult, especially since they trailed also in the second set after the Swiss had come out with all guns blazing in the opening one. Laboureur and Sude, however, did not lose composure, and actually they fought their way back with a lot of determination to extend the match to the tie-break. They had to stand the fierce resistance of their opponents also in the deciding set, but right by the moment it looked like they had missed out on a golden opportunity – Laboureur made an easy mistake spiking a free ball into the net for 13-all – the Germans stayed cool and secured an extremely important victory.
“We recently lost a couple of matches to this Swiss team and it always ended up in a close race; as far as I can remember we lost two tie-breaks, one 15-13 and the other 16-14, so we knew this was going to be another close run,” Sude said. “However, we are no longer that unexperienced, we have been around for a while already and we know how to cope with this kind of situations,” she continued.
Laboureur and Sude upset the Swiss crowd in attendance, with many young fans cheering the Swiss team on from start to end. “Actually since we both come from the south of Germany, we kind of felt at home, and definitely it did not feel like the Swiss fans were against us,” Laboureur added.
As a result of this victory, Laboureur and Sude will skip the first elimination round and resume their #EuroBeachVolley campaign straight from the Round of 16. “Right now our plan is to see the physio, relax a bit, take a shower and go to bed,” they said. “We are not going to wait for the results of the Drawing of Lots [for the elimination round]. Tomorrow morning our coach is definitely going to come down and follow the match whose eventual winners will become our next opponents in this tournament. I am not quite sure we will come as well, at this stage we know all teams pretty well and it does not change much if you follow and scout one extra match. It pretty much depends on the weather conditions,” Sude added with a smile.
Other pool winners
Apart from Laboureur/Sude, another five teams swept three matches in a row in their respective pools. Switzerland’s home favourites Nadine Zumkehr/Joana Heidrich made amends for what happened to their compatriots earlier in the evening and by sweeping Katrim Holtwick/Ilka Semmler aside (21-17, 21-16), they were the only home team to top the standing of their pool.
In Pool B 2014 European champions Marleen van Iersel and Madelein Meppelink of The Netherlands were made work hard for this achievement especially in the second set of their matchup with Slovakia’s Dominika Nestarcova and Natalia Dubovcova (21-9, 28-26).
Karla Borger and Britta Büthe of Germany achieved the same feat in Pool C after cruising to a fairly comfortable 21-16, 21-11 victory over Stefanie Schwaiger/Barbara Hansel of Austria. The silver medallists from the 2013 FIVB World Championships have dropped only one set so far and this happened in Wednesday’s late match they played against the Swiss tandem consisting of Tanja Hüberli and Nina Betschart.
In Pool D Ekaterina Birlova and Evgenia Ukolova of Russia had a ‘day off’ on Thursday after their matchup with Kinga Kolosinska and Monika Brzostek was cancelled following the withdrawal of the 2015 bronze medal winners of last year’s championship in Klagenfurt.
In Pool F Italy’s Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth haven’t dropped a set so far in the competition – and their clean run continued on Thursday with a 21-15, 21-19 victory over Sophie van Gestel and Jantine van der Vlist of The Netherlands.
Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst were able to make up for yesterday’s surprising loss to Vasiliki Arvaniti/Panagiota Karagkouni of Greece; the gold medallists from Klagenfurt 2015 were back in fine form and after cruising to a quick 21-13, 21-19 win in their clash with Marketa Slukova and Barbora Hermannova of the Czech Republic, they ended up topping the standing in Pool A with a record of two wins and one loss.
Pool H, on the other hand, was the most closely contested of all, especially after all four teams drawn in this group claimed one victory out of two matches they played on Wednesday. The ones who eventually emerged on top were Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo of Spain whose 21-16, 21-15 victory over Riikka Lehtonen and Taru Lahti was enough to settle for first place in the pool. The Finns were left heavily disappointed as they finished pool play in fourth place, which means they had to pack their bags and head straight to Hamburg for the next stop of the FIVB World Tour.
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