07/06/2014 12:30
Swiss fairy tale continues on Poetto beach, top-seeded Germans are routed
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Cagliari, Italy, June 7, 2014. Tanja’s and Tanja’s fairy tale on Poetto beach continued on a sunny Saturday morning where Goricanec and Hüberli shocked the crowd and many Beach Volleyball experts with a straight-set victory (21-15, 21-14) over first-seeded Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany. The Swiss underdogs showed another terrific performance – as they had done in yesterday’s 1/4 finals with Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova – to progress to the gold medal match of the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final in Cagliari. Ten years after Simone Kuhn and Nicole Schnyder-Benoit won gold at Timmendorfer Strand, a Swiss pair will vie for the fictional title of Europe’s queens of the beach later on Saturday afternoon. Goricanec and Hüberli have already improved on what Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr had achieved in 2009, a bronze medal which remained Switzerland’s last appearance on a European podium to date.
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“It is really unbelievable, it is some kind of fairy tale,” Goricanec commented after the semi-final match with the winners of this year’s Shanghai Grand Slam, Ludwig and Walkenhorst. “I still have to fully understand and realise what we have achieved. Well, my partner delivered a terrific performance as she had done yesterday as well; as far as I am concerned, I am not totally satisfied with my own performance, but the result is the only thing which really matters in the end. It went like in yesterday’s matches; we were really cool and relaxed, played point after point and exploited the fact that they evidently got nervous as they most probably did not expect they would trail in the score that quickly. We have a medal now, so that pressure is already gone, at least.”
The European Championship on Poetto beach had not started the best way for Tanja & Tanja as shortly after their arrival to Cagliari, Hüberli had some physical problems and this way they even had to stop their first training session on the white sand of Quartu Sant’Elena after only five minutes. However, on Saturday morning Hüberli pulled out a terrific performance, “she served and blocked really well,” partner Goricanec acknowledges. The Swiss girls caught a very good start and Ludwig/Walkenhorst asked for a time-out by the time they were trailing 2:6 in the first set. This move proved to be a good one as they scored four straight points to make it 6 all; after that, Goricanec and Hüberli responded with another 6:1 run (12:7) whereby they practically determined the fate of the set as they could keep that margin all the way through to the end (21-15).
Hüberli’s block was one of the main weapons the Swiss could rely on but the second set turned into an uphill climb since the first-seeded pair of the tournament did not want to give in that easily. Ludwig and Walkenhorst seemed to have found their way into the match with a 6:2 lead that prompted a Swiss time-out. As they were cheered by a small crew of Swiss fans, Goricanec and Hüberli kept cool to eventually level the score at 8 all. Ludwig and Walkenhorst were only a very distant copy of the duo that had impressed at the Shanghai Grand Slam, and from there onwards their mistakes helped the Swiss pair break away (13:10, 18:14), bringing the first semi-final to an end with a shocking 2:0 victory (21-14).
Ludwig and Walkenhorst will now try to regroup and retain the bronze medal they won last year in Klagenfurt, while Goricanec and Hüberli wait for the winners of the second semi-final starring Madelein Meppelink/Marleen van Iersel (NED) and Victoria Bieneck/Julia Grossner (GER) to get to know the name of their opponent in the gold medal match.
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