07/06/2014 13:43
Oranjes to play Swiss sensation in women’s final match
2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Cagliari, Italy, June 7, 2014. Germany accounted for almost half of the teams that had progressed to the 1/4 finals of the 2014 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship – Final in Cagliari and even though that country also had the top three pairs of the entry lists, German teams won’t have the possibility to play for gold on Poetto beach. On Saturday, after Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst had lost their semi-final to Tanja Goricanec and Tanja Hüberli, Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grossner also ended their campaign one step away from the last act of the tournament. The “orange girls” Madelein Meppelink and Marleen van Iersel claimed a 2:1 victory (23-21, 14-21, 15-8) to get the right to vie for gold later in the afternoon.
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Two years ago Marleen van Iersel and former partner Sanne Keizer had driven the Dutch audience just crazy on the beach of Scheveningen, just nearby The Hague, to win European gold at home. On Saturday van Iersel played a superb match and will therefore vie for her second European title in the final match that is set to follow on Saturday late afternoon.
There are only a very few players who were able to achieve that feat since the European Championship was established back in 1994. Italy’s Laura Bruschini/Annamaria Solazzi are the all-time leaders with three titles (1997, 1999, 2000) together with Greece’s Vassou Karadassiou who also has three gold medals on her resume though with different partners (with Eftychia Sfyri in 2001 and alongside Vassiliki Arvaniti in 2005 and 2007).
The first set of the semi-final with Bieneck/Grossner, winners of the FIVB Anapa Open in Russia last week, was a very close one, as neither team was able to break away in the score. The set went overtime before van Iersel and Meppelink closed it at 23-21. The course of the game changed quite dramatically in the second set where Bieneck and Grossner went up 6:3 to prompt a Dutch time-out. The “Oranjes” could not stand the enormous pressure put by their opponents who went on to widen their lead all the way to the final 21-14 sealed by Julia Grossner with an ace. The tie-break, however, went a totally different way: after a tie at 2, van Iersel stepped up and with the contribution of Meppelink in blocking, the Dutchwomen displayed a real show of strength that resulted in a terrific 15-8 set win.
With former partner Sanne Keizer having taken a break from competitive sport to nurse a wrist injury that prevented her from performing her best throughout the 2013 season and to focus on her studies, van Iersel teamed up this year with Meppelink and the partnership seems to be working just fine, as the “Oranjes” have now their sight set on European gold. “It is now time to take a little rest and focus on the final with the Swiss girls, the real sensation of this tournament, who have nothing to lose,” van Iersel and Meppelink said after their semi-final match. Bieneck and Grossner will play their countrywomen Ludwig and Walkenhorst for bronze.
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